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Derrida criticism to Searle

Talk page discussions going well. If the dispute isn't resolved, try a request for comments. Regards, Whenaxis (contribs) 00:50, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

List of wars involving Great Britain, List of wars involving Russia

• List of wars involving Great Britain (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)
• List of wars involving Russia (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)

Dispute overview

• Can you give us a quick explanation of what is going on? What is the issue you are bringing here?

a discussion has been going on about the convenience of using simple list or tables in this 2 articles. i argue that simple lists are easier to read and edit, while MarcusBritish and Dpaajones favor the use of tables. MarcusBritish and i have been the most involved in the discussion , but we have reached a point where he doesn't want to argue anymore and to just leave the article the way it is, which is the state he favours.

Users involved

• Who is involved in the dispute?

• Andres rojas22 (talk · contribs)
• MarcusBritish (talk · contribs)
• Dpaajones (talk · contribs)

• Have you informed all the editors mentioned above that you have posted this dispute? (If not, once you have informed them come back and replace the text "Not yet" with "Yes".)

Not yet. Yes, he has.

• N.B. To inform the other users you may place the text {{subst:DRN-notice|thread=List of wars involving Great Britain, List of wars involving Russia}} --~~~~ in a new section on each user's talk page.

Resolving the dispute

• Have you tried to resolve this dispute already? If so, what steps have you taken?

i explained the benefits of lists over tables in this type of lists and because MarcusBritish insisted on having a table i suggested a middle point: a table with less text than the current table has, in order for it to be more easy to read like lists are but that it also would allow to have some aesthetic value and a bit more info as MarcusBritish wanted.

• How do you think we can help?

mediate to allow us to reopen a discussion based in arguments and to reach a consensus. check the discussion page and you will see how arguments have been substituted by accusations of all kind. we need a third party without relation to this discussion to help us see the blind spots of the debate we were missing,

Andres rojas22 (talk) 04:04, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

List of wars involving Great Britain, List of wars involving Russia discussion

Comment

This is a waste of editor's time. Andres simply cannot accept that his method of converting populated tables to basic menu-like lists was border-line disruptive, cutting the GB article down from ~46,000 to ~6,000 characters in one swoop with no regard for the stability or previous input by other editors, and war editing over this format. The matter was discussed between himself and Dpaajones based on the false premise that basic lists offer more functionality (see User talk:Andres rojas22#Explain yourself). Dpaajones invited uninvolved editors via WT:MILHIST due to the continued reverts. I performed a WP:BRD revert and updated the article from bog-standard HTML table to Wikitable and various MOS tweaks. Several MILHIST members support the Wikitable format and not the List. Andres refuses to accept the format, or content. He has not given a good account of the benefits of lists in this case, and if he believes he has, they do not amount to the reasons why a table is required here, per WP:WHENTABLE. The content is multi-level and requires several columns. Andres "proposal" to reduce the content to 3 columns is nonsense: 3 column tables might just as well be presented as lists, so it's really a motion to herd the article in the wrong direction, i.e. quality assessment would degrade, to a very basic layout, with loss of valuable data. Andres has yet to explain why he prefers this minimalist approach, only saying that the data is in each linked article. Firstly, articles are not self-referring and do not refer to other articles, only wikilink. Second, the format he chooses looks little more than a disambiguation index page, and is not good quality. Finally, researchers should not be expected to have to go through dozens of articles to learn the specifics when they can be summarised on one page, in a table, as is the point of such articles. The article is short on citations, but that does not make it "wrong", simply requiring further development. Such articles can lead to FL quality, whilst basic lists rarely exceed the "junior encyclopedia" mentality to be rated as anything above List/Start class. If we're supposed to be developing an encyclopedia here, reverting articles from multi-column cross-referenced to tables into bullet-point lists is backwards, and does not help anyone. It not not aid readers, does not advance Misplaced Pages, does not result in high quality lists. The format and arguments presented by Andres are misguided and ill-suited to the articles in question and he simply does not accept that the majority have spoken in favour of the present format. The consensus, or support for tabular format over basic list, by MILHIST members speaks for itself, a DR cannot be used to override the views of several other editors against one editor who simply has an WP:IJDLI agenda against tables and flagicons. His claim that I am opposed to basic Lists is also invalid, I am simply opposed to their use in this instance, and reducing articles to low-level organisation. As I said, the conclusion has already been reached, if Andres feels the need to revert the format again, against current consensus, I will simply raise it with WP:AN as a war editing issue. Thanks, Ma®©usBritish 04:42, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

Regarding:

• Have you tried to resolve this dispute already? If so, what steps have you taken?

i explained the benefits of lists over tables in this type of lists and because MarcusBritish insisted on having a table i suggested a middle point: a table with less text than the current table has, in order for it to be more easy to read like lists are but that it also would allow to have some aesthetic value and a bit more info as MarcusBritish wanted.

• This isn't only my opinion, other editors support it. So there is no dispute between me and Andres alone, but me, others and Andres solo. The discussion on the talk page clearly shows that he refuses to "get it" and accept that his edits were not acceptable.

• How do you think we can help?**

mediate to allow us to reopen a discussion based in arguments and to reach a consensus. check the discussion page and you will see how arguments have been substituted by accusations of all kind. we need a third party without relation to this discussion to help us see the blind spots of the debate we were missing,

• I should like to note that I am third party. The issue was originally between David and Andres on his talk page. David invited uninvolved MILHIST members, making me third party. DR is now fourth party. What next Andres.. Arbcom? The matter has simply been elevated because Andres refuses to accept that the opinions of his preferred list format have been out-weighed. DR needs to stop this editor from shopping for support when his argument becomes exhausted. Ma®©usBritish 22:25, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

Comment

I am not going to waste any more of my time on this matter - I ask that any arbitrator read: Talk:List of wars involving Great Britain#List format .2F content. Furthermore, there are several more editors who agree with my stance on this matter, and none who agree with User Andres (this can be seen on the talk page of the British article, which I have just wikilinked). Thank you. David (talk) 11:09, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

Comment

History lessens normally gives the start and end (death) date for both wars and people. The previous Great Britain webpage give the dates this allows the reader to see where wars overlap something that the articles on each war rarely say. Who was on each side and the out come are interesting. The information is a summary that permits the effect of the war to be determined. Andrew Swallow (talk) 12:06, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

Comment

David Misplaced Pages:Polling is not a substitute for discussion, you have avoided discussion since the issue started and tough the original discussion was between me and you, MarcusBritish has been the only editor truly committed to discuss, until recently at least which is the reason i opened this request.--Andres rojas22 (talk) 21:23, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

There has been no polling, as has already been made clear. However, a number of editors from MILHIST supported my arguments and reasons for keeping the current format. This constitutes as a form of consensus, and indicates that more editors prefer the tabular format. A consensus does not have to result in a happy-medium, when it is clear that 4 editors disagree with you and you alone. You have suggested that readers/editors prefer lists for functionality, and though asked to invite such people to comment, have failed to do so, which means the claim in unsupported. You refuse to accept a majority opinion and are attempting to push your own preferences (POV pushing) against the majority via this DR. The matter is simple: You changed articles from tables to lists without considering the consequences, you engaged in reverting the opposition to your edits, and as a result the editor, David, was forced to invite outside views. MILHIST members have given their views in support of the original format, not for lists. That is a form of consensus, not a poll. The discussion is pointless because you refuse to accept any views other than your own, and have offered no reasons for your dislike of the tables, apart from suggesting that they don't look good on archaic 800x600 monitors, which, to be frank, is just tough-luck, Wiki can't expect to support old resolutions only used by ~1% of the population. Because the discussion is not making any ground either way, it is required for us to consider the balance of the !votes, as we can hardly expect for an article to be completely changed for one soul editor only. Consensus doesn't have to mean that we use any of your ideas, unless you can prove their benefit. Given that we know that a 3-column table layout with a few words per cell is little more than a bordered list, your only suggestion is neither practical nor efficient use of wikitables. As has been said, the use of dates, flags and outcome helps give readers a broad overview of Great Britain's history of war, whereas a list provides little more than a directory of wikilinks, but nothing material. Such lists lack encyclopaedic value, hence my derision of them as "menu lists", you get the names of the meals, you don't get the ingredients and recipe. That's what leads articles to becoming FLs, rather than lingering in the low-quality List category. Ma®©usBritish 21:45, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

those are your opinions, i'll refrain anymore comments from my part until an arbitrator takes the case.--Andres rojas22 (talk) 21:51, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

This is not my opinion, this is fact. At no point in these comments do we see any evidence of "polling". We see editors supporting my argument without feeling the need to expand on or repeat it. That does not qualify as a poll in any sense of the word, in policy, or anything else for that matter. What it does indicate is opposition to your changes, but no expansion to the discussion, because there isn't a suitable format that can be used between List and Table that would be practical. So we should be sticking with what is popular and considered acceptable. Ma®©usBritish 22:07, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

Template:Cue Hi everyone, I'm a regular contributor at this noticeboard. This is a tricky situation to deal with, and the guidance given by Misplaced Pages's policies and guidelines doesn't seem to be conclusive here. MarcusBritish linked to the guideline WP:WHENTABLE above, and this is what it has to say on the subject: "Often a list is best left as a list. Before you format a list in table form, consider whether the information will be more clearly conveyed by virtue of having rows and columns. If so, then a table is probably a good choice. If there is no obvious benefit to having rows and columns, then a table is probably not the best choice." So to follow this guideline, we need to consider what data we want to show in the list - but that is the exact thing that this dispute is over. So this guideline doesn't look like it is going to be too much help here.

Next, we have Andres's argument that using tables makes the list look cluttered, and the other editors' argument that not using tables leaves out useful information. I think both of these arguments are valid, and I'm not aware of anything in policy that would guide us towards choosing one over the other. The only policy that applies here that I know of is that we must follow consensus. MarcusBritish made the insightful point, however, that we should consider how best to get the list to featured list status. If we look at the featured list criteria, we can see that criterion 5a is: "Visual appeal. It makes suitable use of text layout, formatting, tables, and colour; and a minimal proportion of items are redlinked." So it seems that using tables would be more likely to get the list to featured list status than not using them. Whether this criterion is fair or not is open to debate, but it seems to be a good reason to use tables in absence of other guidance.

Having said this, in the end it will be consensus that decides what ends up on the page. Contrary to Andres's comment above, we do not do arbitration on this noticeboard. We cannot make any binding decisions here, I'm afraid. If people's opinions don't change, then to get a clear decision on what to do it would be necessary to take this question to an RfC. However, given the number of editors in favour of using tables so far, I'm not sure that an RfC would have a great chance of being successful. Andres, it's up to you if you would like to try or not, but you should be prepared for the fact that things might not go the way you want them to. Because this is a collaborative project, there are times when you will not be able to get your way. It might be that this is just one of those situations where you have to let things go. Let me know if you have any questions about this. All the best — Mr. Stradivarius 13:16, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

thanks for your commentary im glad to see you understood everyone's thoughts. i don't have a die hard opinion, since i started the discussion i came with an open mind an willing to compromise to reach a common understanding. i dropped my case for the conversion to list for the sake of consensus but the information contained is excessive and must be reduced in some parts to make it easier to read and write, right now it doesn't look like a big issue but the list today only covers a tiny percentage of the conflicts that involved Great Britain in the era (including many small colonial wars) that when they are added to the list will make it a torturous process for a reader/editor to check the list looking for a war. that being said, since i accept the table format and i believe that would make the consensus, we could end the discussion here and just continue normal editing, but i have the feeling MarcusBritish and i would still clash about the table's style and disposition, he has pretty strong ideas of what he wants. would you recommend to continue the discussion over the style of table or is it enough that we agree that tables are good for this 2 articles? and Marcus what do you say? --Andres rojas22 (talk) 14:14, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

Mr S. has pointed out that WP:WHENTABLE begins with "Often a list is best left as a list." As I have noted before, this article was never a list to begin with, except in name, the original creator created the article as a table. To me this is no different to ENGVAR which says use the variation of English used by the creator, except where there are strong national ties. In this case, the table format was used first, and reverting to a list is bound to bring opposition. I don't have strong views on behalf of myself, or the subject, as I have no previous involvement with this article, afaik. I have strong views in terms of what is presentable, and best relates to policy, MOS, readability, etc. Wikitables are virtually auto-styled once the class is attributed, from there it's a matter of creating rows/columns/data. I do not believe that Andres makes a valid point with regards to "as the table gets bigger, the content is too difficult to edit", because there are many large rand more complex tables on Misplaced Pages, some FL, which are stable and well-managed. Wikitables are simple markup, not complex HTML tags, and so there is no reason for any editor to have major difficulties updating, expanding or editing the content. As for readers, I stand by my belief that a basic list is little more than an index of wikilinks and conveys nothing of value, a 3-col table is just a list with borders and of little value, and a table offers the best way of displaying the data in rows and columns, chronologically, and it's hardly nuclear physics to read down and across a table of only 6 columns. I don't think there's anything else can be discussed, I've given my bit, and other editors agree with the table. I think an RfC would simply allow for more MILHIST editors to support the present table format, as we use them a lot in that project, and Andres would simply be wasting further time and resources to confirm an outcome that has already been determined thrice already, between himself and David, with me, and here with Mr S. noting that an RfC would likely be pointless. I think it's a matter of Andres just letting this one go, as I don't think the table can be reduced anywhere near as much as he hopes, and given that there is more potential for expansion rather than reduction, he could end up digging a hole for himself if he continues to bring attention to the matter. There are plenty of historians out there might find a reason to knock on an extra column or two, because.. because they can, if they have reason enough to believe it is valid, reliably sourced and beneficial. Ma®©usBritish 15:42, 26 March 2012 (UTC)

you haven't been able to find a common ground or at least try. plus your management of policies and guidelines has been full of flaws: every policies or guideline you have cited supports my arguments.WP:WHENTABLE shatters your argument of the convenience of tables over lists:

If there is no obvious benefit to having rows and columns, then a table is probably not the best choice.

— WP:WHENTABLE

If there is no obvious benefit to having rows and columns, then a table is probably not the best choice.

— WP:SAL

you're argument that "this article was never a list to begin with, except in name, the original creator created the article as a table" is weak, just because the article did not begin as a list it does not mean that it's table material. the main point is to: "consider whether the information will be more clearly conveyed by virtue of having rows and columns. If so, then a table is probably a good choice. If there is no obvious benefit to having rows and columns, then a table is probably not the best choice." not who was first the table or the list.

then you say:

To me this is no different to ENGVAR which says use the variation of English used by the creator, except where there are strong national tie

I'm puzzled by this statement, how does a guideline related to the naming of an article relates to the formatting of lists? you have repeatedly made some odd arguments using the policies and guidelines during the discussion.

and WP:TABLE also says:

Tables should not be used simply for layout, either. If the information you are editing is not tabular in nature, it probably does not belong in a table: Try not to use tables for putting a caption under a photograph, arranging a group of links, or other strictly visual features. It makes the article harder to edit for other Wikipedians. Also, when compared with tables, wikimarkup is more flexible, easier to use, and less esoteric when used for desktop publishing, page elements, and page orientation and positioning.

— WP:WHENTABLE

--Andres rojas22 (talk) 10:49, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Blah, blah, blah... perhaps the only thing that is "shattered" or "weak" (weasel words of a persistent WP:BATTLEFIELD nature) is the fact that your initial, and continued argument fails to convince anyone that lists have any superior, logical, or "obvious" benefit over tables. And per your quote:

Tables should not be used simply for layout, either. If the information you are editing is not tabular in nature, it probably does not belong in a table

The data is tabular, and no it isn't a bloody "group of links", it's a 6-column chronological table with dates (not wikilinks), wars (wikilinked), the aggressors (auto-wikilinked), and outcome (not all wikilinked). So in essence, your point here is ill-conceived, and you don't seem to recognise the differences between "simple" and tabular. As for indicating that is may be harder for Wikipedians to edit, the quote is out of context, because that only applies to where tables have been misapplied to minimal lists. There is nothing "simple" about 6-cols worth of data, over a useless dates/wars menu.

I suggest you rethink your first four sentences because they were bollocks! As is your repeated non-sensical dislike of tables. Nothing you said here is anything but subjective personal opinions, and a further waste of time. Your WP:COMPETENCE is questioned here. Ma®©usBritish 17:07, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

if you're not capable of argumenting you're thoughts with policies and guidelines then just let go of the discussion, don't reply to my arguments that i have supported with 2 guidelines, of which the main points of the extracts are even highlighted in bold text with a disrespectful mock calling them ""Blah, blah, blah.... i take this as what it is, if you're not serious about discussing then let it go, don't make me waste my time writing arguments well based in policies for you to mock.--Andres rojas22 (talk) 01:58, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Oh quit blowing your own bloody trumpet and spouting crap. The fact of the matter is that you're repeating the same arguments over and over, like a stuck record even with several editors against your views. I think you need to take you own advice and drop the matter yourself, before someone dies.. of sheer boredom. Of course I'm mocking you.. this vain attempt of yours to discredit tables by responding with subjective nonsense.. the same subjective nonsense you were saying a week ago.. is now laughable and cannot be taken seriously. The guidelines/policies/MOS say nothing that supports any good reason to change from tables to a list. And you've no presented a convincing reasons to reduce the table considerably, because they are fairly lightweight as is. So the matter really is closed, because the article is stable and looks fine, as agreed by other editors. You're the only one who thinks otherwise. There's no reason to change the article, because no one supports your pro-list claims. And consensus doesn't mean we have to do anything to suit your demands, only that we're listened and dismissed them. DR concluded. Go find something else to do, this WP:STICK is now rotten. Ma®©usBritish 04:30, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

you are no judge to declare the discussion has ceased just because you cant come with a decent argument to support the use of tables, every policy and guideline you have misused as supporting you're arguments i have clearly shown shown they support mine's and contradict what you say, the most blatant example being WP:WHENTABLE. of course you don't want to discuss, you cant prove your points! try at least to comprehend a guideline before just randomly throwing a link as "proof" of your opinions. mocking a user who is trying to have a debate is a clear breach of WP:CIV, as is offensive and provocative remarks as "Oh quit blowing your own bloody trumpet and spouting crap". arguments are sustained by policies and guidelines not by attacking the other party--Andres rojas22 (talk) 06:17, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Waffle.. I see lots of words, but nothing of value. I don't need to provide anything further, other than to indicate that the current format is wider supported and stable. You can change it, but if you do I'll refer it to the war editing board as contrary to consensus. This discussion is over, because you clearly have nothing to say but the same empty words. So I have no reply other than: consensus wins in the form of three or four editors rejecting you wanting a list. I've cited plenty of policy in the past, which Mr S. noted and agreed was relevant, so how you come the conclusion that I haven't either makes you stupid, or a liar. Now I have nothing more to say on the matter. Tables have been supported, lists haven't. I have no interest in your "civility" rants, or anything else. End of story. Ma®©usBritish 13:04, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Section break

i have agreed on the use of table, not b the table's virtues but onl as a compromise, but with a couple of changes:

• the 2 columns that list separately the ear of beginning and ear of ending of the war to become a single column, and
• reduce the outcome descriptions by removing excessive information of the concessions obtained:territorial exchanges and war reparations.

do you agree?--Andres rojas22 (talk) 20:01, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

No.

Per FL criteria (the ultimate goal of any lists, and so best criteria we have): "Structure. It is easy to navigate and includes, where helpful, section headings and table sort facilities."

Combining start and end of wars removes sorting ability. If someone wanted to know what wars began in X-year they could, but they would lose ability to sort by and find wars that ended in X-year.

Provide examples of what you consider "excessive". The matter is subjective, but the outcome of any war is generally identifiable, as long as it is not controversial and challenged by people who think the outcome was something else. Reliable sources should be provided in those cases, and to attain FL each outcome should be sourced. A fairly big task, but not impossible. Ma®©usBritish 20:24, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

a table with a large number of lines between ever war is not easily navigable, and combining the dates of start and ending in one column would complicate sorting and finding conflicts by the year they ended because visually the only change would be 1900-1901 instead of 1900|1901. if you look a First Opium War you'll see how small is the space occupied by the main information which is the name of the conflict and date compared to the one occupied by the details of what concessions the chinese made, it should say british victory and/or treaty of nanjing. an article should include information that is needed b the user the reader to understand what he is reading, but not too much to the point where it becomes a visual distraction and hinders reading. an example if i listed "First Opium War" without anmore detail i would be forcing the reader to go to the page's article to see the date it was fought but b putting the dates of the war in this list the reader would have a better understanding of the conflict and if he wanted more details he could direct himself to the article's page. self containment and reliance on other articles for further information are both important, but a list even if in table form is just a list and not an article.--Andres rojas22 (talk) 01:21, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

What "large number of lines between every war"? Combining dates is not appropriate, as in some cases wars coincide with each other, so sorting:

• 1066-1070
• 1150-1250
• 1200-1201
• 1380-1400

would produce them in that same order for Start, but not work in order to produce:

• 1066-1070
• 1200-1201
• 1150-1250
• 1380-1400

for sorting by end, as proved here:

As is clear in this example, sorting both start/end is the better option, and what is required for ordering the data, not just for visual layout, which seems to be your concern. People want to be able to find things chronologically, in such tables. Basic lists offer none of these options, hence why they are easy to rule out for this purpose, where the article forms a chronology of events. Am speaking from experience, as I work with a lot of articles that use lists, tables and such, so I know how they function very clearly, and what is suitable format for them.

For all intents and purposes, you're using the word "article" wrong. Everything is an "article" per se, it's it's format that determines if the article is a list, prose based, table, etc. "Article" is an umbrella term, for everything, generally speaking.

Ma®©usBritish 02:31, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

i see, i agree on the separate columns for dates. but what about the description of the results, i pointed out the descriptions are too detailed and its information that the reader probably doesn't read at all, people get into this lists of wars to search for a conflict and then go to that conflict's article to get more information, they don't read the whole list so they don't make use of the detailed descriptions which obviously cannot compete with the coverage of a full article; and the editor will find hard to fill up what are a huge lists: covering 300 years of conflicts all over the world for the british and more than 700 years for russia! of which only a tiny fraction are listed now. what i propose if to give the results of wars as victor/defeat and/or naming the treat that ended the war, but to put more details to the description is to overcrowd the readers view with exclusive details and set a standard that other editors may not follow or achieve.--Andres rojas22 (talk) 12:41, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

I think in those cases where a war ended in a treaty it is not always necessary to detail each and every clause of the treaty, even in summary form, a wikilink to the treaty should suffice, and possibly one or two main points per outcome, nothing trivial, may be required in some but not all cases where the result, as part of the outcome, is of great importance to British or even world history, e.g. Napoleonic Wars, WWI, WWII, etc. This, however, would require further discussion between other editors involved in the article, as I'm not willing to make the decision to refactor the Outcome column based on a one-on-one discussion. Ma®©usBritish 20:04, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

Comment

Andres, there are six editors disagreeing with you in the discussion at Talk:List of wars involving Great Britain#List format / content and none agreeing with you. I think it's time you admit consensus is not on your side and Drop the Stick. Mojoworker (talk) 02:16, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

you can see in the article discussion page that what was being discussed was if the list should be in table or in a stand alone list. i have agreed on this wp:drn to keep it as a table so that discussion is over, now there's a new discussion on how the table should look. so the stick you're talking about was dropped a long time ago this is another discussion.--Andres rojas22 (talk) 12:41, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

Mantas Šiaučiūnas

Closing as: Outside of English Misplaced Pages's pervueCurb Chain (talk) 01:33, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Serbia under German occupation

I was indeed mistaken (sorry Curb Chain). Closing per forum shopping. Already posted at Arbitration enforcement and ANI. Regards, Whenaxis (contribs) 00:53, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

List of American Civil War Generals (Confederate)

• List of American Civil War Generals (Confederate) (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)

Dispute overview

• Can you give us a quick explanation of what is going on? What is the issue you are bringing here?

List of American Civil War Generals (Confederate) is/was a very large article with a very large and cumbersome notes column. User talk:This, that and the other (unrelated to this conflict) suggested on the talk page that the notes section be removed all otgether because all the information there is in each general's respective article. I (User: Brightgalrs) did just that, and went through removing the notes section among other changes. User: IcarusPhoenix undid my revision and posted a message on my wall. This conversation followed.

Users involved

• Who is involved in the dispute?

• Brightgalrs (talk · contribs)
• IcarusPhoenix (talk · contribs)

I feel as though IcarusPhoenix is nonchalantly undoing my edit without the intention of making the article better at all.

• Have you informed all the editors mentioned above that you have posted this dispute? (If not, once you have informed them come back and replace the text "Not yet" with "Yes".)

Yes.Brightgalrs (/braɪtˈɡæl.ərˌɛs/) 20:31, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

• N.B. To inform the other users you may place the text {{subst:DRN-notice|thread=List of American Civil War Generals (Confederate)}} --~~~~ in a new section on each user's talk page.

Resolving the dispute

• Have you tried to resolve this dispute already? If so, what steps have you taken?

I've initiated the third opinion step here and posted on the WikiProject Military history talk page here

• How do you think we can help?

Mediate this argument and end the edit war.

Brightgalrs (/braɪtˈɡæl.ərˌɛs/) 20:30, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

List of American Civil War Generals (Confederate) discussion

"Imagine if you will that you had done the same amount of work that you just did on these articles, but came back and did that same work several dozen times... and then someone came out of nowhere and, without discussing it with anyone else, eliminated massive swaths of it." (Posted here by IcarusPhoenix) Icarus, do you feel that my revisions are wrong simply because you put effort into what I deleted? Brightgalrs (/braɪtˈɡæl.ərˌɛs/) 20:36, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Template:Cue I think the consensus is clear that the "Notes" section should be removed with 3 editors in favor of it as opposed to 1 editor who does not want it removed. I've requested for page protection so this dispute can be resolved. Don't edit war, if the edit warring gets really bad, report it to the edit warring noticeboard and it may lead to temporary blocks. IcarusPhoenix, is there a reason why you would like to have the "Notes" section maintained? Regards, Whenaxis (contribs) 21:03, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

First things first, I did not write the above comment on this page; it was my response to User:Brightgalrs|Brightgalrs]] on the user's talk page, and it was Brightgalrs who chose to move it here without the relevant context, not I; it was a direct reply to Brightgalrs, and not part of the dispute process. That being said, here is my position on the matter:

I think that Brightgalrs decision to apply for dispute resolution is premature, as the user has thus far failed to understand the nature of the dispute, nor bothered to discuss his/her edits with a single one of the more than half-a-dozen editors who have been working for years to craft this article and (among other things and with consensus) address the exact issue that Brightgalrs thought they were addressing. The dispute is not entirely over the nature of the edits, but in part over Brightgalrs' decision to make those edits without bothering to once discuss it with any other editors involved in the page, most notably Donner60, who was already condensing (not callously deleting) the notes section to bring it in line with its sister article List of American Civil War Generals (Union) (which Brightgalrs also made some undiscussed massive - though less-invasive - changes to) and in accordance with a long consensus-building discussion between several editors; if Brightgalrs had so much as bothered to look here (which would have involved no more effort than scrolling slightly up the talk page) or looked at the recent edit history, he/she(?) could have avoided this entire process, to say nothing of creating a situation that would lead to a copy-protection that will delay Donner60's work. While Brightgalrs may feel that my reversion of his/her edits were "nonchalant" and lacking regard for the work done, my position is that even making those edits without bothering to look at the article history or the work that others had already agreed to was an act that actually damaged the integrity and accuracy of the article. This is a discussion that has been held civilly by several editors from the articles very inception, and not one of us had the lack of common courtesy displayed by Brightgalrs to simply go and make massive wholesale changes to an article with no regard for work already in progress. I strongly recommend that people read Donner60's explanation on the talk page I linked above and look at the article history to see why we object to Brightgalrs' unilateral decision to change the very nature of the article.

Also, at the risk of sounding nitpicky here, Brightgalrs didn't quite follow procedure in informing of this dispute, and has yet to say anything to any of the other editors of either page; the only reason this dispute is being had between Brightgalrs and myself rather than Brightgalrs and myself, Donner60, BusterD, Searcher 1990, and several others is simply that I was the first one to notice the situation; I have had to take it on myself to draw their attention to this matter. Despite the rapidity of Brightgalrs' actions, Hlj has already been kind enough to respond to my request for an opinion (just as he or I or several others would have done for Brightgalrs had he/she bothered to ask), and his reply can be read on my talk page. IcarusPhoenix (talk) 21:52, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Note: Please note than , , , and constitutes as campaigning per WP:CANVAS, due to the unneutral accusational tone of the messages, i.e. "As another editor of the page, I'm turning to you and a few others to ask assistance in trying to reign in actions that frankly border on vandalism." Icarus is advised to read WP:VANDAL as removal of content, with Good Faith intents does not constitute as vandalism, by any standards. Would advise Brightgalrs that if he feels Icarus has sought to cast unfair claims against him to raise the matter with WP:ANI, as wide-spread accusations of vandalism are not tolerated, generally. Ma®©usBritish 22:10, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

I have to disagree with Marcus' assertion of canvassing; asking the opinions of other involved and interested editors (which Brightgalrs failed to do) - notes I had begun to write before the dispute resolution process began - does not constitute canvassing. These are interested parties in the dispute, and I very clearly asked their opinion; that I cut-and-pasted the same question to all of them for the sake of expediency in the face of an issue that is moving surprisingly quickly is hardly surprising; that the out-of-context portion of my statement that Marcus quoted above was border-line inflammatory, however, I do not really dispute; this was, as I said before this process had started, and after Brightgalrs' out-of-hand rejection of any opinion other than his/her own, I was unsurprisingly irritable. While in retrospect I am not terribly fond of the tone I adopted in those messages, being dismissed by someone who refused to participate in preexisting discussions before making wholesale changes was, I think you'll agree, understandably irksome.

IcarusPhoenix (talk) 22:18, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

(edit conflict)Inviting other editors to comment is permitted. Adding an unneutral tone to the invitation is campaigning, period. So feel free to disagree, you are incorrect however, per Wiki policy, which is linked and clear. You choice if editors also seems fairly selective, given how you state that there are "more than half a dozen". Might want to think about that. Ma®©usBritish 22:23, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Clerk's Comment/Template:Cue Icarus, thank you for your reply. MarcusBritish, I don't think those edits constitute canvassing as they are merely notes to possibly interested parties to participate in discussion. However, I do agree that ownership of articles is not acceptable and there should be openness to other editors wanting to improve the page. Icarus and Brightgalrs, I think there has been a lack of communication (or miscommunication) about the "Notes" section. I do agree that you should reach a consensus on what to do with the "Notes" section before merely just completing an edit. If necessary, you can request for comments on what sort of measure should be done (i.e., complete removal of the "Notes" section or refactoring of the "Notes" section). As I said earlier, if the edit warring continues after the full page protection expires, please report it to the edit warring noticeboard. Regards, Whenaxis (contribs) 22:21, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Whenaxis, thank you for your statement. Marcus, I went to three editors whose activity level on this group of articles showed the sort of dedication that Brightgalrs has demonstrated and whose hard work was most at-risk by edits made without consensus. Your assumption of bad faith from me is no different than my assumption of the same in Brightgalrs' edits, and is unbecoming to someone who theoretically should be a neutral party.

My suggestion is as follows: That Brightgalrs and myself do our best to leave this discussion aside entirely for a day or so, until other interested parties (notably Donner60, whose work constituted the overwhelming majority of what Brightgalrs eliminated) have had time to look at the matter. IcarusPhoenix (talk) 22:34, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

MarcusBritish: The canvassing guideline clearly states under the appropriate notification heading at the last point, "On the talk pages of concerned editors. Examples include editors who have participated in previous discussions on the same topic (or closely related topics), who are known for expertise in the field, or who have asked to be kept informed. The audience must not be selected on the basis of their opinions—for example, if notices are sent to editors who previously supported deleting an article, then identical notices should be sent to those who supported keeping it. Do not send notices to too many users, and do not send messages to users who have asked not to receive them." which is precisely what IcarusPhoenix did. It was inappropriate of you to assume bad faith on IcarusPhoenix's part, the first step when you suspect canvassing, is to politely talk with the user to stop posting notices.

IcarusPhoenix: That would be a good idea. Step away from the dispute for a little while and once you've calmed down, return to discussing. If there are any further issues, feel free to bring this dispute back to the dispute resolution noticeboard or refer it to the edit warring noticeboard in the event of disruptive edit warring. Regards, Whenaxis (contribs) 22:41, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Icarus' wording, accusing someone of vandalism, when evidently there has been no such behaviour, was inappropriate, and so not only do I assume bad faith on his part, but the polemic attacks of that/those editors which his dispute is against are proof of his bad faith. I stand by my notions, and care not if you wrongly see my concerns as bad faith. His wording was aggressive, and designed to provoke selected editors. The WP:CANVASS guideline you mention also states, "Campaigning is an attempt to sway the person reading the message, conveyed through the use of tone, wording, or intent. While this may be appropriate as part of a specific individual discussion, it is inappropriate to canvass with such messages." This is precisely what he did also. I consider Icarus' accusation tone as a motive to impress a POV, contrary to the guideline. That's all I have to say on this clear-as-mud matter, thank you. Ma®©usBritish 01:38, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

This dispute is ridiculous. IcarusPhoenix should have quickly seen that consensus was against the unwieldy 300 kb notes section, and that its presence was detrimental to article access in terms of focus and with respect to those with poor internet connections. (Even without the 300 kb the article is a mass of server calls with all of those images.) IcarusPhoenix dug his heels in and tried a number of tactics to retain the mass of peripheral text. He should acknowledge that none of the tactics worked and that consensus has shifted firmly for removal.

The text in question is available in article history; it does not need to be kept in the 'live' article for any sort of slow, careful removal piece by piece. It should be removed post-haste. Binksternet (talk) 14:46, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Binksternet: The thing is, I agree that the notes section is unwieldy. In fact, I was the first one to say so, right here, which is why User:Donner60 was in the process of paring it down when this dispute cropped up. What I do not agree with is its complete absence; indeed, my opinion - stated many times before and generally lost in the quagmire of Marcus' personal attacks - is that the notes column should be brought in line with the much-more limited and relevant style set in List of American Civil War Generals (Union) (which is exactly what was being done, though still not to the extent that I for one felt it should), and that the "Date, Place of Birth", "Date, Place of Death", and especially-irrelevant "College" columns should all be eliminated. The dispute exists primarily because a user decided to do a mass edit without seeing if they were stepping on the toes of another user (namely Donner60) who was already solving the size problem in a manner that Brightgalrs' edit ruins the progress of. Edits of such scope are usually kept in the sandbox for this very reason, and one only needs to look at the articles recent history to see that, never mind multiple discussions that were had prior to this incident. IcarusPhoenix (talk) 17:31, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Binksternet – I agree with your thoughts, and disapprove of Icarus' attitude towards the objections stated, and his attempts to stand between consensus and his way of doing things, but it also seems to me that this DR is now evolving into an attempt to stall further action as well as WP:SOUP the objections. Donner60 has indicated they are on wikibreak into ~17 April. Evidently this DR cannot be allowed to drag on for that long while no progress is made to the WP:TRIVIA based Notes column. Recommend you open an WP:RFC and have other editors comment on the matter. I suspect, given than many editors dislike WP:TOOLONG articles, and that 472,000kb is utterly ridiculous and resource-greedy, that they will motion for instant removal of the Notes, or begin an instant cut-down of the crap detailed therein, before Donner60 gets back. Despite Icarus' beliefs, no one has the right to "reserve" an entire article for themselves to refactor, for more than a few hours, that would be WP:OWNish. Your choice, however, but it would lead to stronger consensus building, and hopefully knock Icarus off his high-horse, as the community doesn't fare well with overbearing editors leading issues. Ma®©usBritish 18:19, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

My recommendation (unsurprisingly) is somewhat different - though, unlike Marcus, that may be because I'm more interested in an equitable solution to paring down the article than I am in the personal virtues of others (a tendency Marcus is displaying not only here, but in a companion discussion here in which he has spent the entire discussion cursing more creatively and has made nationally-bigoted comments, and above in his equally vitriolic and unconstructive personal attacks against User:Andres rojas22). My recommendation is that we immediately eliminated the unnecessary birth/death/college columns (which, especially in the case of the latter, we can all agree are superfluous to the topic of the article) and continue to pare down the notes section just as User:Donner60 has done for sections A-F - though, as I stated earlier, I am now and always have been strongly in favor of being far more aggressive about these eliminations that Donner60 has been. Again, I suggest looking to the sister article for a demonstration of concise and strictly-structured notations. IcarusPhoenix (talk) 18:36, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Section break

IcarusPhoenix, unfortunately, the consensus is against your recommendation of refactoring the "Notes" section. Majority of the editors want it completely absent from the article. And MarcusBritish has brought some good points about how the note that you left on the editors' talk pages were not neutral, in the future, I ask you to avoid such circumstances as it may appear as canvassing even if you don't mean it to be. In addition, just pushing the blame on other people as to the failure of the resolution of the dispute is not the way to resolve the dispute. Perhaps, Donner60 and IcarusPhoenix can propose their refactored version of the notes later on the talk page, while we maintain the article without the notes because it is quite heavy on the article and too long for the time being. Regards, Whenaxis (contribs) 20:34, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

That seems fair for now, though I would point out that the consensus here doesn't fully seem to match consensus elsewhere, nor do I feel that enough input has been made overall, particularly to my most recent suggestion, which no one has yet had time to reply to; I would request leaving this resolution thread open for a few more days, since at present it's mostly filled with Marcus' ever-more vulgar attacks and my ill-advised desire to defend myself from those attacks, rather than discussions of the dispute in question or the relative merits of specific proposals (indeed, yourself and User:Binksternet seem to be the only ones thus far able to remain faithful to the discussion's core topic). IcarusPhoenix (talk) 20:42, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Addendum: I have rapidly sandboxed the "A" section of the list to demonstrate my proposal here (note: it's not perfect, but just a rapid demonstration... there are a couple of factual tidbits I'm uncertain about). The first version is it's current appearance after Donner60 eliminated the full-bio notes still visible in letters after "F"; the second is my proposal for revision, maintaining the notes column with only relevant information and eliminating three intervening columns. Also, I'm not really satisfied with the ranks column; I am of the opinion that nomination dates are unnecessary and that only confirmation dates (in parentheses) are necessary to indicate seniority. IcarusPhoenix (talk) 21:11, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Can the reader not find the information in the "Notes" column from the article page on the person? Whenaxis (contribs) 21:18, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Much of it, yes - or, at least, they certainly should be able to, though many of those articles - particularly for Confederate generals - are not themselves quite up to standards yet. That actually was my exact argument against having so much extraneous information in the notes to begin with, and I think it is also the argument in favor of removing the birth/death/college columns. Things like units, non-notable elected offices, non-military colleges, and deaths unrelated to the war just aren't relevant to the article's topic and belong confined to the individual articles; however, I do think there is an argument to be made for specific and relevant information. I for one feel that readers should be able to find from this single location things like who died during the war, who had a military education, which CSA officers resigned from the US Army, which US officers earned the Thanks of Congress and Medal of Honor, and which officers held major civil or military offices (Governors, federal office, ambassadorships, etc.). The other information is, I agree, extraneous, which is why I put up a comparison version. I'm also still of the opinion that nomination dates are superfluous and confusing. IcarusPhoenix (talk) 21:52, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

I think if we deduct the "Notes" section further so it looks like other related articles (i.e., List of American Civil War Generals (Union)), it'll be easier on the reader. Regards, Whenaxis (contribs) 21:56, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Actually, the article you're referencing has a notes section, which is the one I'm emulating with my test edit; what it does not have the birth/death/college columns, and the elimination of those is what would make it look similar. If the goal is to make the articles look similar, those are the columns that we should contemplate elimination of, I believe.

Also, just as a further point, I've just done a character count test; only eliminating the notes column takes the "A" section from 12,368 bytes to 6,194; however, eliminating the columns not present in the sister article and eliminating information from the notes not in the sister article brings it down to 5,138 bytes; removing nomination dates would probably remove another 200-300 bytes more. In sections after "F", where no paring down or notes has yet been done at all, the effect would be even greater. My estimation is that rather than lowering the character count by about 307,000 bytes (which is what elimination of the note's column did), we could maintain the relevant information and bring the character count by 350,000 bytes or more. IcarusPhoenix (talk) 22:09, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

That's what I meant by "deduct" :) - as in decrease the size of the notes. I agree that if we cut down the size of the "Notes" section, the other sections that don't appear in the other articles should be removed as well. What does everyone else think? Are we just trying to make everything shorter or being biased towards the "Notes" section (because that's a little unfair if that's so)? Regards, Whenaxis (contribs) 22:15, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

My feeling is that, at the very least, User:Brightgalrs (who I'm hoping will drop by soon and look at this particular proposal) and I share the goal of decreasing article size... and drastically. As for bias, I think my bias is not so much towards keeping the column's existence as it is towards making the articles look the same... which, admittedly, means the same thing under the circumstances. IcarusPhoenix (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 22:18, 30 March 2012 (UTC).

@Whenaxis: By what means is bias against the Notes unfair? Let's take the very first A entry in the table and his notes as an example. They read:

• Brother of Brig. Gen. William Wirt Adams.
• Mississippi state senator, 1852–1856.
• 1st Louisiana Inf.: Lt. col., March 13, 1861, col., October 30, 1861.
• Lost right eye at Shiloh.
• Wounded: Perryville, Stones River (Murfreesboro).
• Wounded and captured at Chickamauga, exchanged 1864.

These have apparently been reduced already, by Donner60. Given that this as American Civil War related, his role as senator is unrelated, it pre-dates the ACW by 5 years, and I don't see why the brother relation matters here. The last four points are the only notes direct related to the ACW.

Now, please go to WP:TRIVIA#Example, see this example of what not to do per MOS, and tell me how this table (or Union) is any different? How can these articles ever attain WP:FL standard, for example, when they completely blatantly contradict the requirement which states: "5. Style. It complies with the Manual of Style and its supplementary pages", WP:TRIV being a supplementary. I'm failing to comprehend why articles of such lengthy content should be permitted to go against the universal MOS, and WP:TOOLONG when others are reduced to comply? I know there are some that are necessarily TOOLONG, but that is usually as result of the subject being vast, but in this case it is evident that the Notes, a repetition of content in each General's article, is superfluous, thus creating the TOOLONG result. The solution to both the trivia and length issues is clear. Ma®©usBritish 00:00, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

That's what I'm saying. We should make it more like this article: List of American Civil War Generals (Union). If we're going to cut down the "Notes" section because it's too long because it does have some trivial information, we should get rid of the other columns that don't exist at List of American Civil War Generals (Union) because WP:TOOLONG covers the entire article not just the "Notes" section. Regards, Whenaxis (contribs) 00:18, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

Public domain newsreels

Crowish, if you still need assistance, you can ask for help at the help desk or the reference desk. Regards, Whenaxis (contribs) 21:36, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

Passive smoking, Smoking ban in England

• Passive smoking (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)
• Smoking ban in England (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)

Dispute overview

• Can you give us a quick explanation of what is going on? What is the issue you are bringing here?

It all began with a request for Passive smoking to be moved to Second-hand smoke (see: Talk:Passive_smoking#Move.3F). I was one of those who opposed. I then discovered that since December 2011 User:Hypocaustic had been systematically changing "passive smoking" to "second-hand smoke", and "smoking ban" to "smoke-free regulations" on many articles (see e.g.: , ) — he subsequently used the more frequent occurrence of "his" term as a justification in the move request, an issue I raised at the time. The move request was declined.

Things went downhill on 26 February, when the user moved Smoking ban and many related pages unilaterally, and move-warred with two editors when they attempted to revert him (see: user's move log). Eventually he gave up and disappeared for a month after an experienced editor criticized his edits to Smoking ban, which is a semi-protected article (see: ).

Reappeared last week, and has tried to copy/paste articles from one page to another, causing attribution problems (see: content and edit histories of Passive smoking vs Second-hand smoke, and Smoking ban in England vs Smoke-free law (England)). I reverted his most recent changes but he reverted me back, calling my edits "vandalism" (see: edit summaries at , ). I then approached the admin who had closed the original move request for advice, and he directed me here.

Entirely separately, the user has changed several articles from US to UK English, and then reverted editors who try to change it back. I have warned him about this, and he seems to know the rules (see: this diff (where he warns another user about changing from one style to another), but still makes the changes regardless. See e.g.:

• Animals and tobacco smoke = makes several changes to UK English (then edit-warred over this)
• Passive smoking = makes several changes to UK English
• Smoking ban = Changed "Organizations" to "Organisations" in See also section, then reverts user who tries to restore US spelling, citing WP policy(!)

Users involved

• Who is involved in the dispute?

• Hypocaustic (talk · contribs)
• Cross porpoises (talk · contribs)
• Wikophile (talk · contribs)
• Escape Orbit (talk · contribs)
• Favonian (talk · contribs)

(last three editors are only marginally involved, compared to Hypocaustic and myself)

• Have you informed all the editors mentioned above that you have posted this dispute? (If not, once you have informed them come back and replace the text "Not yet" with "Yes".)

Yes.

• N.B. To inform the other users you may place the text {{subst:DRN-notice|thread=Passive smoking, Smoking ban in England}} --~~~~ in a new section on each user's talk page.

Resolving the dispute

• Have you tried to resolve this dispute already? If so, what steps have you taken?

Talk:Smoking_ban#New_title.3F, User talk:Hypocaustic (now blanked), User talk:Favonian

• How do you think we can help?

Explain to User:Hypocaustic what consensus is, why copy/paste moves are wrong, why WP:RETAIN exists; restore content of pages at Passive smoking and Smoking ban in England per the GFDL requirements.

Cross porpoises (talk) 17:43, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Passive smoking, Smoking ban in England discussion

Thanks for bringing this to the attention of a wider group of Wikipedians. There seem to be two or three different issues or concerns here, all of which seem to have presented a risk of unhelpful disputes (or even 'edit wars') and some of which may perhaps offer some wider learning for phrasing of WP guidance. I'll do my best to list these and explain the situation, as far as I understand it.

1. Smoke-free laws / smoking ban. Some time back, I initially made what I have to concur was an error in how I interpreted the guidance to 'be bold', by carrying out some swift move-and-redirect edits on grounds which appeared, at least from a technical standpoint, to be uncontroversial. We got into what looked perilously near to an edit war, and I did indeed pull back from involvement for a while to let tempers cool. What the sometimes heated debate around this suggested was that some contributors are motivated to 'defend' explicit references to bans because this makes it easier to argue against such measures (essentially bans are presented as illiberal a politically 'bad thing'); I don't know if that's part of this specific complainant's concern so this is an observation rather than accusation, but it does seem to have clouded the conversation a little further. What I have endeavoured to do more recently is gradually improve the clarity with which Misplaced Pages defines, and distinguishes, both terms - rather than getting into an either/or dichotomy, or sudden 'big bang' edits. I'm sure I haven't done that absolutely perfectly and would very much welcome input from fellow contributors to strengthen the content, but I do indeed think that knee-jerk reverts of careful and considered edits are rather close to vandalism, much as I regret having to level such a charge.

2. Second-hand smoke / passive smoking. I should probably emphasise at this point that tobacco is not the only subject in the world I'm interested in! However, the picture here is rather simpler. I initially proposed a straightforward move of the old 'passive smoking' article to 'second-hand smoke'; the discussion around this revealed a robust intellectual case for doing that, but there were not a sufficient number of respondents to achieve much of a quorum and no consensus to move was reached. I nevertheless observed the group conclusion, refrained from imposing a simple move/redirect and returned to this particular topic subsequently when it became clear that the two terms, although obviously related, were importantly distinct and different in their meanings. So, as things now stand, we now have a page both for the older term, passive smoking and the currently recognised term, second-hand smoke, with some explanatory text on both pages (and mutual links) to make the relationship clear. I honestly think that, for now, this is the most elegant solution and probably the one most useful for readers. However, I sense that part of the objection raised here may be that some text explaining the scientific and regulatory detail appears on just one of those pages, thus causing the complainant to be concerned that a move had been made 'under the radar'; that certainly wasn't the intention, but thoughts on how to positively respond would be welcome. It seems a less than ideal use of the bandwidth to simply reproduce text on both pages, but there is perhaps scope to produce more tailored content so as to ensure that both terms/pages have a fuller 'body' if this is desired.

3. Varieties of English. Like many contributors and editors, I think, I try to sustain and improve the consistency and accuracy of spelling, phraseology and punctuation as I go along. Because I was trained in a specific variety of English, I'm sure it's highly likely that I have, on occasion, erred in changing a spelling which was arguably not actually incorrect, but simply in a different tradition. If that's happened, it has been unintentional and I'm grateful for support in addressing it. On the one clear occasion I can recall where the complainant here did challenge me along these lines, I followed the 'ENGVAR' guidance and identified alternative phraseology which was less subject to transatlantic disagreements in the first place, although that seems not to have satisfied him or her unfortunately. Does this guidance perhaps need to be clearer? Where there is felt to be an issue about retaining the variety of English used by the very first contributor, could or should there be a more visible way of indicating which this is? Thoughts welcome.

I've done what I can to enhance the resources which the encyclopaedia offers on the first two points, and would like to propose a moratorium to allow time for other Wikipedians to assist and/or comment. I'm not sure if there's already a convention on this, but it would certainly seem sensible for Cross Porpoises and I to be 'hands off' as regards those specific pages for a week or two if both agree. Thanks, in advance, for your help.Hypocaustic (talk) 19:08, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Comment

My involvement in this dispute involved Hypocaustic's edits to Smoking ban. Hypocaustic has an issue with some of the terminology used, and technically speaking he may have a point. However, my position is that, per WP:COMMONNAME, Misplaced Pages should prefer the more commonly known term, the one most likely to be understood by readers. The subtle shade of difference between "smoking ban" and "smoke free law" is not a reason to change everything and the article itself makes what it means clear.

I think all involved in discussions regarding what Hypocaustic wished were ready to hear what he had to say. Discussion was cordial, despite Hypocaustic repeating his changes in apparent attempts to force the issue. At the end I thought that Hypocaustic had amicably agreed to accept consensus in February and leave the article as was.

Discussions have not been helped by his non-neutral stance on the issue and his belief that there is some kind of Misplaced Pages conspiracy by tobacco supporters to favour "ban", because it helps them to portray the measures as oppressive. I can't see any evidence of this and his repeated reference to it sails very close to violating WP:AGF. "Ban" is used because that is what sources most commonly use, it's as simple as that.

I believe Hypocaustic's latest edits to be disingenuous. He knows what he wishes to do is against prior consensus, so coming back for another go a couple of months later in the guise of being bold is at best misguided, at worse mischievous. If he thinks he has a new compromise that could satisfy everyone, then he could raise it on a talk page first. As it is, I don't think he is offering anything new, just another approach to the same changes.

I also think his work on Passive smoking and Second hand smoke is a textbook example of POV forking and an attempt to bypass consensus in the previous move discussion. Misplaced Pages does not need two articles on these closely related topics simply because one editor doesn't like the name. Any hair-splitting necessary between "Passive smoking" and "second hand smoke" can be handled within the one article.

I don't think his changes in spelling are any big deal, and am happy to accept he did not set out to do these deliberately. --Escape Orbit 21:05, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Section break

Clerk's Comment/Template:Cue Other than edit warring and some discussion on the article talk page and user talk page, there's been no attempt to resolve the dispute. As a prerequisite to the dispute resolution noticeboard, there has to be talk page discussion. I think it was inappropriate to assume bad faith of Hypocaustic by constituting his/her edits as "vandalism". I think the parties can work from the merge RfC and see what kind of consensus there is and work from there. If there's anything else I can help with, just let me know. Regards, Whenaxis (contribs) 21:15, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Clerk comment This looks like a behavioural problem, on the part of user:HypocausticCurb Chain (talk) 02:00, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

BMW R1100GS (Reopened)

• BMW R1100GS (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)

Dispute overview

• Can you give us a quick explanation of what is going on? What is the issue you are bringing here?

Regarding the relevance of a sepreate sub-section of text about a particular book that has been inserted into a general article page about a particular motorcycle. The talk page discussion has reached an impasse regarding the relevance/non-relevance of this book material to the motorbike and also, therefore, the relevance/non-relevance of sources for such.

Users involved

• Who is involved in the dispute?

• Rivercard (talk · contribs)
• Dennis Bratland (talk · contribs)
• Biker Biker (talk · contribs) (Added by DRN clerk after examining dispute.)

The original deletion of the book material was reinserted by a user who has 35 out of the article's 50 edits, so there may be an issue of 'ownership' here regarding 'outsider' edits.

• Have you informed all the editors mentioned above that you have posted this dispute? (If not, once you have informed them come back and replace the text "Not yet" with "Yes".)

Yes (notices given by DRN clerk)

• N.B. To inform the other users you may place the text {{subst:DRN-notice|thread=BMW R1100GS}} --~~~~ in a new section on each user's talk page.

Resolving the dispute

• Have you tried to resolve this dispute already? If so, what steps have you taken?

Discussion on the talk page of the article.

• How do you think we can help?

Can we get some form of consensus on what consitutes relevance and trivia? For example, the added text regarding the book may be relevant to an article about the book, but non-relevant to the article about the bike.

Rivercard (talk) 15:10, 21 March 2012 (UTC)

BMW R1100GS discussion

I am a regular mediator/clerk here at DRN. I've looked at the Misplaced Pages:Manual of Style/Trivia sections and the Misplaced Pages:Handling trivia essay and I find no policy or guideline which requires the inclusion or exclusion of the material removed in this edit. The essay is only an essay and is not binding in any way; the MoS guideline is, at its heart, about trivia sections not about the inclusion or exclusion of individual items which are contended to be trivia and, indeed, the third bullet point of Misplaced Pages:Manual_of_Style/Trivia sections#What this guideline is not expressly says:

"This guideline does not suggest the inclusion or exclusion of any information; it only gives style recommendations. Issues of inclusion are addressed by content policies."

No other policy or guideline has been brought forward to justify the inclusion or exclusion of this information, nor can I think of any which would do so. In light of that fact, then the information must be included or excluded by consensus. The information was originally introduced into the article in this edit in 2009 and has remained there until the current controversy arose with the information being, first, broken into a separate section in this edit, then removed in this edit. It has been restored by two editors since that time. The consensus policy says:

"Some discussions result in no consensus. "No consensus" means that there is no consensus either way: it means that there is no consensus to take an action, but it also and equally means that there is no consensus not to take the action. What the community does next depends on the context. ... In discussions of textual additions or editorial alterations, a lack of consensus results in no change in the article."

There is clearly no consensus at this point in time to support the removal of this long-existing material, so it should remain in the article until a clear consensus has been formed to remove it. If the editor wishing for the content to be removed desires to attract additional editors to the question, then a request for comments would be the best way to do so. My personal feeling is that while the material is unquestionably marginal that it could be of importance to some readers and, indeed, supports the notability of the subject of the article, so my support would be for continued inclusion. Regards, TransporterMan (TALK) | DR goes to Wikimania! 17:58, 21 March 2012 (UTC)

Clerk's note: I have reopened this discussion (originally closed on March 23) pursuant to the request made at User_talk:TransporterMan#BMW_R1100GS_noticeboard. The requesting party, Rivercard, must notify the other parties to the discussion that the discussion has been reopened before posting here. — TransporterMan (TALK) | DR goes to Wikimania! 20:31, 30 March 2012 (UTC) Supplement: The discussion is being opened to at least consider the effect of WP:WPACT on the discussion. It should be noted that Misplaced Pages:WikiProject_Motorcycles#Guidelines expressly makes WP:WPACT also applicable to motorcycles, not just automobiles. It is to be noted that WP:WPACT is not a policy or guideline, but is instead part of "an information page that describes communal consensus on some aspect of Misplaced Pages norms and practices. While it is not a policy or guideline itself, it is intended to supplement or clarify other Misplaced Pages practices and policies." — TransporterMan (TALK) | DR goes to Wikimania! 20:46, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

First, to TransporterMan, thank you very much for reopening this discussion to give me the opportunity to reply with newly found code information.

More importantly, it is to provide an answer to two assertions on the noticeboard:

(1) 'I've looked at the Misplaced Pages:Manual of Style/Trivia sections and the Misplaced Pages:Handling trivia essay and I find no policy or guideline which requires the inclusion or exclusion of the material removed in this edit.'

(2) 'No other policy or guideline has been brought forward to justify the inclusion or exclusion of this information, nor can I think of any which would do so.'

Point (2) was absolutely correct at the time on the 'other policy/guideline' issue, and I have to shoulder some blame here for not searching out the most apposite Wiki code. Apologies for that. But that is why I think it is especially important that we can now raise the following communal consensus:

"Trivia and popular culture sections

• WP:WPACT

Misplaced Pages generally does not support the addition of trivia and pop-culture sections within articles. There is a tendency for such sections to degenerate into long lists of movie and TV show appearances, song lyrics, and the like. Similarly, lists of celebrity owners of cars (etc.) tend to grow to inappropriate length. The guideline that has been widely accepted for automotive subjects is that mention of pop-culture references should be strictly limited to cases where the fact of that reference influenced the sales, design or other tangible aspect of the vehicle. It is not sufficient to note that the vehicle had a major influence on its owner or some movie or TV show — such facts belong in the article about the owner, movie or TV show."

In principle, I’ve already been arguing exactly the highlighted points above - (especially re: the importance of the motorbike to Neil Peart not being the same as the importance of Neil Peart to the motorbike's entry) - and I’ve been putting them on the entry’s (talk) page (I won’t copy/paste them all here). But this is the first time I’ve been able to present an exact Misplaced Pages consensus code that explicitly expresses the same.

Obviously this miscellany/relevence problem with vehicles has arisen before hence why the hard work of consensus-seeking in WP:WPACT has already been done on the subject by many other Wikipedians. (And, to be fair to Dennis Bratland (talk), perhaps he was also unaware of the existing consensus of WP:WPACT.)

I do think it is an extremely important point in principle that there is no elitism on Misplaced Pages and that communal consensus clarifications are seen to be enacted equally, regardless of the insistence otherwise of editors that may have some historical ‘investment’ in an entry. That’s all I ask. Thanks.

Regards. Rivercard (talk)

• Comment Misplaced Pages:WikiProject Automobiles/Conventions is neither a policy nor a guideline (see WP:PG). WP:WPACT is useful as a minimum standard for appearances in movies and such with no well-sourced cultural impact to go with it (example). As a minimum standard, if the appearance affects the car's design, sales, etc. then you can positively say the appearance belongs in the article about the car, even if the cultural significance has no reliable sources to back it up. But that doesn't mean you then have license to delete all material that doesn't meet WP:WPACT. The more general Misplaced Pages policies and guidelines have precedence, and those don't justify deleting well-sourced material that is considered culturally and socially important by many reliable sources. Examples: A, B, C...

  It is an error to think that the primary purpose of a Misplaced Pages article about a car or motorcycle is to recite the design details and engineering specifications. The policy WP:NOTMANUAL makes that point. The same policy underscores that once again with WP:NOTSTATSBOOK. AKA WP:INDISCRIMINATE, WP:NOTPLOT. With regard to fiction plots, it says "Misplaced Pages treats fiction in an encyclopedic manner, discussing the reception and significance of notable works in addition to a concise summary." A good article about a book is not merely a detailed recitation of the contents of the book -- a mere plot summary. On the contrary, that is kept to a minimum, and instead the critical reaction and cultural impact is the primary purpose of the encyclopedia article. It says the same thing about song lyrics -- Misplaced Pages is not a database of lyrics; we write articles about the effect the song had on culture, and what the critics said.

  So a Misplaced Pages article about the BMW R1100GS motorcycle should not be mere a list of statistics and technical facts. Giving sales figures and production numbers and what kind of fuel injection it had is nice, but that's not terribly encyclopedic. The policy in fact tells us to not overdo such statistics and repair manual data. Instead, the main point of an encyclopedia article about the BMW R1100GS should be the critical reception and the cultural impact. Neil Peart's book is perhaps the greatest cultural effect of this motorcycle. The policy Misplaced Pages:What Misplaced Pages is not has precedence and tell us to do almost the opposite of WP:WPACT in this case. Provided authoritative sources exist to support it, and for Peart's Ghost Rider, as with the examples of the Brough SS100, XR-750, and CB77 linked above, sources are copiously available.

  If anything, WikiProject Automobiles ought to either delete or rewrite WP:WPACT so as to cease the appearance of contradicting policy. It might be a good idea to transclude this discussion at Misplaced Pages talk:WikiProject Automobiles or Misplaced Pages talk:WikiProject Motorcycling to see if anyone there wishes to defend WP:WPACT. --Dennis Bratland (talk) 04:20, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

• Comment

Dear Dennis, the first argument you presented on the article talk page was: ‘I found several sources that show that Peart did not ride just any motorcycle. It actually mattered that the bike in his book was a R1100GS. See '.

Now, that appears well sourced. But, when we look more closely:

source simply says - ‘BMW off-road machine owned by Neal Peart of the Canadian rock band Rush’
source is a six-page/1,400 word excerpt showing ONE mention of the bike and it is only: ‘his wife Jackie bought him a BMW R100GS for Christmas 1993’.
source is a magazine exerpt that does not even mention the bike by name.
source is a Google page with 10 search results - 3 are about motorbikes but none mention the R1100GS; the other 7 results are websites for pedal bikes not motorbikes.

So, this is very weak sourcing (in fact, most should be deleted), and none of it proves the opening claim, yet it is presented as if conclusive. It actually more proves why the Peart/book section should not be included on the R1100GS bike's entry page.

YOUR POINTS:
(1)'WP:WPACT is useful as a minimum standard for appearances in movies and such.'

No, it is not just ‘for appearances in movies’ - please note: PACT states ‘It is not sufficient to note that the vehicle had a major influence on its owner, or some movie or TV’ - so the movie appearance point is secondary to the primary point of relationship to owner. You are skipping the primary point (which applies here) and leapfrogging over it to a secondary point (which doesn't apply).

(2) 'Don't justify deleting well-sourced material that is considered culturally and socially important by many reliable sources.Examples: A, B, C...'

As has been demonstrated in first paragraph - (re: ,,,) - it is NOT well sourced and the so-called ‘cultural significance‘ is highly questionable. ‘Cultural significance’ is a phrase that should be used sparingly and only where it applies (i.e. the drummer in a non-culturally significant rock band using a motorbike is nowhere near a definition of cultural significance - So, your example, source A, is of the genuinely significant figure of TE Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) dying on a certain motorbike. But this only proves the case for deletion of the Peart book and disproves the case for inclusion - because: TE Lawrence, culturally significant? - Yes. Neil Peart? - No).

(3) Your example, source C, is the most damning - it first seems to prove that the book ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’ should be on the entry page for the Honda CB77... but really it shouldn't. And you agree, because, if we look in the revision history, we can see that you yourself deleted mention of the book on the bike page because ‘(Make and model motorcycle isn't mentioned in the novel.)’ - Revision as of 02:35, 6 April 2011 (edit) - but now you seek to use it as proof of the opposite? This doesn't make sense.

It makes even less sense when the next day, without explanation, you reinserted the ’Zen’ piece with a subject heading and some references. But references are not adequate support for material that should not be there in the first place - then it just becomes referenced trivia rather than unreferenced trivia. So the reason you first deleted it still stands. Which is exactly the point. And this is the same point that applies to the Peart book section on the R100GS entry.

Again, your ‘evidence’ here unintentionally proves the case for deletion of Peart’s book and not for its continued inclusion. And also further proves the relevance of WP:WPACT

(4) 'It is an error to think that the primary purpose of a Misplaced Pages article about a car or motorcycle is to recite the design details and engineering specifications. The policy WP:NOTMANUAL makes that point.'

I'm afraid that is cherry-picking policy points; the policy article you quote also says ‘In any encyclopaedia, information cannot be included solely for being true or useful’ and ‘there is an important distinction between what can be done, and what should be done’. And removing non-culturally significant information does not reduce the R1100GS page to a handbook. You seem to be using criteria for what shouldn’t be there as justification for what should. One does not follow from the other; included information has to stand independently.

(5) 'It says the same thing about song lyrics -- Misplaced Pages is not a database of lyrics; we write articles about the effect the song had on culture, and what the critics said.'

Again, this speaks to cultural significance - which your previous sources have failed to establish - and the policy quote regarding books and songs does not indiscriminately apply to all books and songs - it would only be relevant to the ones where a good case could be shown. That is the whole point.

(6) 'Giving sales figures and production numbers and what kind of fuel injection it had is nice, but that's not terribly encyclopaedic. The policy in fact tells us to not overdo such statistics and repair manual data.

Well, ‘not overdoing’ statistics is a point in and of itself : it is not a point that justifies other non-significant inclusions. The two are not linked.

(7) 'Neil Peart's book is perhaps the greatest cultural effect of this motorcycle.'

Once again, cultural effect not proven; (and such effect the book might have would come from Peart's description of how travel can help with grief, not how a particular motorbike can do that).

(8) 'Provided authoritative sources exist to support it, and for Peart's Ghost Rider, as with the examples of the Brough SS100, XR-750, and CB77 linked above, sources are copiously available.'

Here you raise for a second time the examples of your 1,2,3,4 and A,B,C 'sources' that have really been proven very weak (or non-existent) and even contradictive to your own case. Those examples still more heavily make the case for non-inclusion of the Peart book material.

(9) 'If anything, WikiProject Automobiles ought to either delete or rewrite WP:WPACT so as to cease the appearance of contradicting policy.'

This is so hubristic it almost offends: to argue for the deletion (seriously?) of a useful and hard-earned Misplaced Pages consensus just because it does not support your own personal view says something, I think, about even the proposer's own lack of confidence in the evidence provided (and especially when you have cited WP;PACT yourself.)

I would humbly suggest that the proposal to keep the Peart book section is a classic form of ‘overvaluation’ and 'over defense' of the material. Fan fervour can be good - without great enthusiasm there would be no Misplaced Pages - but it can also effect objectivity. (And not sure why motorcylists seem particularly aggressive about 'their' edits - is it something to do with the tightness of the riding suits?)

Hope this hasn't been too long (but, well, what else have we got to do...)

Regards

Rivercard (talk) 04:22, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

I've placed a no personal attacks warning on your talk page. This is getting far out of hand and needs to stop. --Dennis Bratland (talk) 04:50, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

I have not yet been involved in this discussion but I have just looked at the article and section in question, the WP guidelines on relevance and WP:WPACT. From the perspective of a fresh set of eyes on this article, the Ghost Rider section, as now written, does not appear to have a strong relevance to the article. But I think the connection could become more apparent by revising the language of that section. What throws the reader off is that the focus of the section as written is Neil Pearl, not the motorcycle. I would think that someone who has read the book could find a perspective there that emphasizes the characteristics of the motorcycle/the experience of the motorcycle as crucial to the author's healing process. A brief but prominent mention of these might bring the section back onto the topic of this article. If it's not there in the book, then the section does not seem relevant.Coaster92 (talk) 04:42, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

David E. Henderson, Kit Bigelow

Out of scope for this board - already being dealt with a copyright notice on the article page. I'm also going to talk to the user on their talk page. Regards, Whenaxis (contribs) 21:41, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

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