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'''The following discussions are requested to have community-wide attention:''' '''The following discussions are requested to have community-wide attention:'''
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A debate has been taking place about whether apportioning significantly more of the lead of the current version of the article to one aspect (HIV prevention) of the main article topic relative to all other aspects is justified. The proposed methodology/methodologies for establishing relative weight of aspects of the topic have been discussed, as have aspects of some of the policies and guidelines governing such issues on Misplaced Pages. An impasse appears to be have been reached and outside input is sought. A new sub-thread titled '''RfC comments''' has been created for the purpose. ] (]) 14:16, 16 January 2012 (UTC)}}
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Is there any merit in including a link to a google image search result as an example of ISO 2852 fittings? ] (]) 07:54, 31 December 2011 (UTC)}} Is there any merit in including a link to a google image search result as an example of ISO 2852 fittings? ] (]) 07:54, 31 December 2011 (UTC)}}
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A debate has been taking place about whether the weight apportioned to HIV prevention in the lead of the current version of the article is appropriate. The proposed methodology/methodologies for establishing relative weight of aspects of the topic have been discussed, as have aspects of some of the policies and guidelines governing such issues on Misplaced Pages. An impasse appears to be have been reached and outside input is sought. A new sub-thread titled '''RfC comments''' has been created for the purpose.
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'''Because there has been some confusion about which discussion threads are active or not, I'm bringing together material from two related discussions in this new section to clarify the situation.'''

Here's the latest version of the table (recently bot-archived four days after the last edit to it) which was originally introduced by ] with , where he invited "others to edit it and add to it."

{|class="wikitable"
|-
! source type
! percentage
! method
! method weakness(es)
|-
| books
| 20%
| First ten "Google Books" results for "circumcision", percentage of books for which specific "Google Books" searches showed that the book mentions HIV or AIDS.
| This is just verification of the co-occurrence of one term together with either of two other terms in 10 results out of .
|-
|books
|2%
|Google Books search for "circumcision hiv" as fraction of search for "circumcision"
|
|-
| literature reviews (any time)
| 29%
| PubMed search for "circumcision hiv" as fraction of search for "circumcision". Using "limits" restrict to reviews.
| Only demonstrates the fraction of '''biomedically related''' sources which reference the term "HIV" from amongst sources of the same kind which reference the term "circumcision". Also suffers from similar newsworthiness problems as the news search results below.
|-
| literature reviews (since RCTs)
| 57%
| PubMed search for "circumcision hiv" as fraction of search for "circumcision". Using "limits" restrict to reviews published after 1 Dec 2005.
| Only demonstrates the fraction of '''biomedically related''' sources which reference the term "HIV" from amongst sources of the same kind which reference the term "circumcision". Also suffers from similar newsworthiness problems as the news search results below.
|-
| "reliable source" books
|
|
|
|-
| recent books (since RCT's)
| 6%
| Since 2005. Google Books search for "circumcision hiv" as fraction of search for "circumcision"
|
|-
| scholarly articles (since RCT's)
| 50%
| Since 2005. Google Scholar search for "circumcision hiv" as fraction of search for "circumcision"
| "circumcision restoration" gives 40%. "circumcision fruit" gives 52%. "circumcision chocolate" gives 9%. Also, "circumcision hiv" since 2008 gives 36% (why choose 2005 in particular?)
|-
| news articles (since RCTs)
| 41%
| Google News search for "circumcision hiv" as fraction of search for "circumcision". Search from 1 Dec 2005 to present.
| Just a test of recent newsworthiness. Says nothing about the importance of HIV to the topic of circumcision compared to non-controversial, established aspects of the topic.
|-
| web pages
|
|
|
|}

In addition to what the search results and criticism offered in the table above suggest, it does seem that the principle of performing PubMed and other searches to establish the relative importance of a sub-topic to a main topic is fundamentally problematic.

Firstly, only sub-topics which are currently newsworthy and being discussed will return significant results: non-controversial sub-topics, whose principles are widely accepted, simply won't be the focus of much discussion and won't return significant results. These kinds of searches do not, therefore, provide an indication of the relative degree of importance of a sub-topic by comparison with another sub-topic where one or more of those sub-topics is currently newsworthy and one or more of the others isn't. And even when comparing two newsworthy sub-topics, these searches still don't provide an indication of the relative degree of importance they have to the main topic.

Secondly, in terms of execution, the search principle lends itself well to searches for sub-topics which can be comprehensively referenced via a single term (as is the case with "HIV", which is an unambiguous and highly prevalent abbreviation) but is much more difficult to perform where a concept may be referred to using a variety of words/phrases, as is the case with foreskin restoration for example, which, to cite a few possibilites, could be referred to as "restoration of the foreskin", "uncircumcision", "restoring the foreskin", "preputial restoration", "foreskin restoring", "restore the prepuce" and even highly contextual variations such as "restore what they've lost", etc.

Thirdly, a search for co-occurring terms reveals nothing about the nature of the relationship between the concepts represented by those terms, aside from an indication, via prevalence of co-occurrence in sources, that there is some relationship.

Finally, why just use PubMed as a dedicated journal search facility, with its biomedical restrictions, why not other academic search facilities such as ScienceDirect? After all, not all sub-topics of circumcision are necessarily medical, e.g. history and religion for starters. Any attempt to establish relative importance of a sub-topic must take as many aspects as possible into account surely? ] (]) 01:16, 30 December 2011 (UTC)}}
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Revision as of 04:01, 17 January 2012

The following discussions are requested to have community-wide attention:

Talk:Circumcision

A debate has been taking place about whether apportioning significantly more of the lead of the current version of the circumcision article to one aspect (HIV prevention) of the main article topic relative to all other aspects is justified. The proposed methodology/methodologies for establishing relative weight of aspects of the topic have been discussed, as have aspects of some of the policies and guidelines governing such issues on Misplaced Pages. An impasse appears to be have been reached and outside input is sought. A new sub-thread titled RfC comments has been created for the purpose. Beejaypii (talk) 14:16, 16 January 2012 (UTC)

Talk:Dwarf planet

This is primarily an NPOV and WEIGHT dispute: Given that sources disagree as to which bodies are known beyond reasonable doubt to be dwarf planets (DPs), what should we do to ensure that, in the words of WP:RSN, "when reliable sources disagree, we document the dispute without taking sides"?

There are several articles involved:

  • This page, in the section Official and "nearly certain" dwarf planets: Should the tables be merged from 4 to 2, with coding to distinguish who accepts which bodies as dwarf planets? (Proposed mergers are given above.) Should the wording of the section and table titles be changed?
  • The nav box {{Moons of dwarf planets}}: Should we list all five bodies that Brown, Tancredi, et al. accept as DPs and which have moons, or should we limit the box to the three accepted by the IAU? If five, how should we, or should we, distinguish the two sets? (The three are in the current version; the five are shown here.)
  • The opening sentences of Makemake and Haumea: Is the Sheppard et al. citation enough to treat these "likely" bodies as having an intermediate degree of confidence between the "bonafide" DPs (Eris, Pluto, and Ceres) and the other four "likely" bodies accepted by Brown et al.? Or is IAU acceptance and the majority of astronomers sufficient for us to say they "are" DPs without qualification?
  • The leads of the other four, Sedna, OR10, Orcus, Quaoar: These are accepted as DPs by Brown and others, but have not been addressed (nor accepted) by the IAU and are not generally called DPs by other astronomers. How best to word the leads to be NPOV and consistent with other DP and TNO articles. We are probably closer to agreement here.

kwami (talk) 04:55, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Talk:Daemon (computing)

I believe the File:Bsd_daemon.jpg image must be removed from this page for copyright reasons, should it? If so what can be done to keep it from coming back?

As near as I can tell this article does not meet the non-free-use rationale associated with the File:Bsd_daemon.jpg image. The article is not about FreeBSD and the image is not used in association with FreeBSD. I removed this image once already, some time ago, but it has returned.

(It's too bad the image cannot be used, because it's perfect. Such is life.)

kop (talk) 06:06, 12 January 2012 (UTC)

Talk:Usage share of web browsers

Since there is really no consensus above and everyone involved can agree on nothing, I ask for outside comment on whether the medians should be included.Jasper Deng (talk) 00:12, 5 January 2012 (UTC)

Talk:List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming

This list article currently requires that editors provide at least one specific quote showing that each included scientist has challenged the consensus regarding global warming. However, in a majority of cases, only a single source is used for each scientist on the list itself. This can be problematic from the standpoint of BLP, NOR, and UNDUE, as it can lead to cherry-picking and may not allow for appropriate context and weight.

If this list is understood primarily a navigational aid, then problems of insufficient context are mitigated by the ability of readers to get more information from each scientist's biography. However, at present, there is no requirement that target biographies provide any discussion of climate change. As a means of establishing notability, we do require that the target biography already exist, but we have no requirements beyond simple existence. I'd like to propose that inclusion on this list further require that each scientist's biography elaborate on his or her views regarding climate change. This issue was raised in November (e.g. here), with some people supporting stronger inclusion criteria, but no conclusion was reached. The main thrust of the opposition was that content here should not be dependent on the content of other wiki pages. Currently, there are two people on the list for whom there is no discussion at all of climate change in their biographies: Antonino Zichichi and Garth Paltridge. A third, George Chilingar, had been on this list despite no discussion of climate change in his article, but he was removed in November.

So what do people think, should we explicitly require that any scientist included on this list must have a discussion of their climate change views in their biography? Dragons flight (talk) 05:23, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Talk:Vacuum

Should the introduction to the article Vacuum be amended to include the following reference to field-theoretic vacuum:
The notion of a perfect vacuum has become more complex with time, and today involves the ideas of virtual particles and vacuum fluctuations, which provide vacuum with physical attributes.
For example, QCD vacuum is paramagnetic, while QED vacuum is diamagnetic. See Carlos A. Bertulani (2007). Nuclear physics in a nutshell. Princeton University Press. p. 26. ISBN 0691125058. Brews ohare (talk) 21:00, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

Talk:ISO 2852

Is there any merit in including a link to a google image search result as an example of ISO 2852 fittings? Mitch Ames (talk) 07:54, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

Talk:Creation and evolution in public education

#Is the level of (mainly primary sourced) coverage of the 'drafting and adoption' of this resolution excessive? Particularly with view to the Parliamentary Assembly's lack of prominence, and purely advisory nature. Such primary-sourced details would most probably be available for many (most?) of the other sections, but has not been included.
  1. Is the level of quotation from the resolution excessive (given similar considerations)?
  2. Is it appropriate to include the factual claim "that Darwinian evolution was a favorite theory of their former communist rulers" given clear evidence of communist distaste for Darwinian evolution (e.g. Lysenkoism), even in quotation marks? Does WP:REDFLAG apply?

HrafnStalk(P) 04:07, 29 December 2011 (UTC)

Misplaced Pages talk:WikiProject Highways

Should coordinates be included in highway articles? If so, how should this be done, in terms of 1) what points of the road should be tagged or how certain roads are tagged and 2) the style that the coordinates should be presented in? 01:25, 26 December 2011 (UTC)


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