Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-08-31/Discussion report

Discussion Reports and Miscellaneous Articulations

The following is a brief overview of new discussions taking place on the English Wikipedia. For older, yet possibly active, discussions please see last week's edition.

At Wikipedia talk:Lead section#Length the subject of the length of the lede to an article has been under discussion. User:TonyTheTiger opened the discussion by proposing thatUser:SandyGeorgia felt thatUser:SlimVirgin wanted editors to be able to argue on a case-by-case basis rather than in reference to rules:User:David Fuchs commentedUser:Ottava Rima offered that

User:King of Hearts opened a request for comment on 14 August:

While User:Rspeer put the case for keeping such content in the face of no consensus:Anonymous editor User:81.110.104.91 countered:

Due to usability and accessibility concerns, User:Cacycle has been working on improvements to {{Navbox}} at User:Cacycle/navbox demo. Most of the discussion regarding the changes has focussed on the positioning of an arrow meant to indicate the ability to show or hide information. Cacycle noted that:

More feedback regarding the changes is welcome, although there are currently compatibility issues with some versions of Internet Explorer at the present time:

A round up of polls spotted by your writer in the last seven days or so, bearing in mind of course that voting is evil. You can suggest a poll for inclusion, preferably including details as to how the poll will be closed and implemented, either on the tip line or by directly editing the next issue.

• Polling and discussion has opened regarding the criteria we will be using to grant reviewer status in the Flagged/Patrolled Revisions Trial. The poll will close at midnight (23:59 UTC) on Sunday 13 September. If the participation is less than 100 it has been suggested the poll be extended unless the result is clear cut.
• A discussion on whether polling is a satisfactory method for gauging or helping to find consensus was initiated on the Wikien-L mailing list. Tony Sidaway questioned the use of polls, noting that "ban discussions on WP:AN [are] being turned into polls, and attempts to undo this are resisted by people who apparently believe they're following Wikipedia policy."[1] Tony Sidaway is possibly referring to Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard#GoRight community ban, in which the page was re-factored a number of times. User:SirFozzie tried to calm the issue down by stating "The next person who adds or removes other people's postings in this section will be blocked." User:Tony Sidaway reminded editors they should "try to avoid turning this discussion into a vote. This isn't new policy and since most of the people using this page should be aware that voting is harmful to consensus there really shouldn't be any surprise about the edits I made." To which SirFozzie replied "Have no problem with you SAYING that, Tony. I do have a problem with you unilaterally removing many posters comments because you disagree with them."

Your writer has trawled the deletion debates opened and closed in the last week and presents these debates for your edification. Either they generated larger than average response, centred on policy in an illuminating way, or otherwise just jumped out as of interest. Feel free to suggest interesting deletion debates for future editions here.

• Is our article on the Kennedy Curse original research? Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Kennedy Curse (2nd nomination), first nomination in 2007
• User:Black Falcon nominates List of wars in the Muslim world based on the scope being "problematic" with regards to guidance on lists
• Article Ashida Kim is facing its sixth nomination for deletion. It was first nominated in 2004, with its second nomination made by Jimmy Wales
• Another article first nominated in 2004, White Dawg, is facing its fifth nomination
• Is the article on the Chodaczkow Wielki massacre based on reliable sources or instead presenting information from a point of view? See debate
• The deletion debate on Suspect guest house, Jalalabad has been re-listed for another week as no consensus was reached as to its notability. The re-listing admin did not clarify why re-listing was preferred over a "no consensus" close
• The deletion debate regarding Zenisha Moktan has been re-listed three times now, having been open since 10 August and attracting four participants. Opinion is still split
• The notability of articles on Jackson Davis, Catheleen Jordan, Jack E. Robinson III, United States House of Representatives Office of Emergency Planning, Preparedness, and Operations, Nan You're a Window Shopper, List of oldest NHL players and American Herbal Pharmacopoeia and Therapeutic Compendium is discussed at their respected deletion debates
• Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Agni Yoga reminded your writer to bookmark WP:TLDR
• List of Coalition forces killed in Iraq in 2006 is facing its third deletion debate on the grounds that "Wikipedia is not an indiscriminate collection of information, nor is it a memorial ground"
• Do we need articles on both Vegetarian and Vegetarianism? Discussion at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Vegetarian is split between redirecting and keeping
• A number of articles on schools were nominated for deletion based on notability concerns on 26 August by User:Majorly
• Is the article Master Shake in breach of the deletion process, or can you create a new article without a deletion review after a different version has been deleted? Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Master Shake (2nd nomination)
• Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Grand Prix 2005 (snooker) considers a number of "by year" articles on the Snooker Grand Prix for deletion
• Does Supporters of marriage equality in the United States violate Wikipedia is not a directory? Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Supporters of marriage equality in the United States
• Is Supporters of traditional marriage in the United States original research? Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Supporters of traditional marriage in the United States
• Have you heard of Skishing?
• Michael Jackson finds his way into a deletion debate on Methods of falling asleep, as the nominator states that the article's prod tag had been removed "as this could have saved Michael Jackson's life"

• Should Category:Victims of American political repression be deleted as representing or indicating a point of view?
• A number of categories related to LGBT-related films by sports have been nominated for deletion
• Should Category:Retailers by country be renamed to Category:Retail companies by country?
• A group nomination of categories relating to Film series by number of entries has split opinion between keeping, deleting and up-merging
• Does Category:Survivors of The Expulsion comply with the neutral point of view?

• Is {{Lolblock}} inappropriate?
• Is {{Intro-synonyms}} redundant to {{POV-intro}}?
• Is Wikipedia:WikiProject Pokémon/Torchic an acceptable sandbox or an end-run around deletion debates?
• Is the redirect of British Royal Air Force Cross to Air Force Cross (United Kingdom) a plausible one based on potential search queries?
• Should Right breast and Left breast redirect to breast? Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion#Right breast
• Should State of Oregon redirect to Government of Oregon or Oregon? Debate is split
• IS File:InstrumentOfSurrender.jpg replaceable since the text the image captures could be as easily relayed in text?

• Editors are trying to push towards a consensus over television schedules at Wikipedia talk:What Wikipedia is not#Rationalizing towards consensus.
• The move of Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents to Wikipedia:Requests for administrator assistance is held up as people once again support the idea. It is unclear when the move is to actually happen, even though it appears to enjoy warm support from the community.
• "Future" templates are currently being deprecated based on a discussion at Wikipedia:Centralized discussion/Deprecating "Future" templates. User:Drilnoth's bot, User:DrilBot is removing instances of such templates, although debate continues as to whether to speedily delete the templates or list them for deletion at the appropriate forum.
• The proposal to return to secret ballots for ArbCom elections has been closed as being soundly endorsed. The debate was open from the 29 July to 28 August. Jimbo Wales (talk · contribs) has already expressed support for such a transition.
• Previously mentioned in the deletion round-up, the deletion debates regarding the articles Alan Roger Currie, Isola (fictional island) and African admixture in Europe are all currently listed at Wikipedia:Deletion review.

24 Requests for comment have been made in the week 24–30 August: