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Please be more careful

I'm sure you spent a long time writing the essay you posted here. I haven't had time to read it yet, but I will try to do so when I have time. However, you moved my comment to a subsection where it had no context and looked like a strange reply to your essay, so I replaced it next to the comment it replied to. Whilst I'm sure it was a mistake, it's the kind of mistake I'd appreciate you looking out for in future. If I hadn't spotted and corrected it, my comment would have looked like that of an abject imbecile in the place you left it. Whilst I'm not specifically denying being an abject imbecile, I'd prefer it if other users reached that conclusion based on my actions rather than someone else's. Thanks. Begoon  17:35, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

Hi Begoon. allow me to express my deepest apologies - it was not at all intentional, it was an edit conflict that didn't appear as such probably due to the fact that I added a header - I was rushing to go to a meeting and hit submit but didn't verify that I didn't screw something up - so again, thanks for being gracious and WP:AGF and being civil - mea culpa. --Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 18:38, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

Heh, no problem, really. I do intend to read the essay, although, as is usual with wikipedia disputes, I suspect the answer is this: The system is broken and we have hundreds of very clever people who all have their own solution. What pisses me off is this - the general public, if it even cared enough to opine, would doubtless tell us just to get our heads out of our asses and fix the problem, and "we" would fail to hear that. We do tend to be very self-absorbed and divorced from reality here. The Reader is the customer. Our job is to swallow our pride, forget our own intellectual masturbatory tendencies, and keep Mr. Reader happy. Hard job, yes, but I already said we are clever, so I think we can do it. Begoon  19:01, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

Now someone is threatening me with a block

Now someone is accusiong me of edit warring because I reverted their removal of an article from Category:American men novelists when the directive clearly states "Please do not empty the category". This is outrageous that they think they can attack me, because I did not sit back and go along with their pre-close emptying of the category.John Pack Lambert (talk) 17:57, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

(talk page stalker) Utterly outrageous. If someone has attacked you I suggest you deal with it firmly but calmly. Not sure about all the category bullshit, but attacks should never be tolerated. Post some evidence at ANI and I'll support you against any user who has personally attacked you. That's a promise. Just commenting because I was here. Begoon  18:05, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

Filipacchi's continued poisoning of discussions

I am really getting tired of Filipacchi's poisoning of discussions. Her anger about how she is categorized is quite out of line with the reality of how categorization works. She claims that my putting "three men" in Category:American himor novelists was meant to "make it look OK". Well, it is not my fault that at one point our article on her opened by saying that she "is an American writer best known for her humorous, inventive, and controversial novels." If that line does not beg for categorization in an American humor novelists category, than nothing does. It was by no means intentional that the other three entries were men. I found them by doing a search on wikipedia "Humor novel" and adding all the American writers of such I could find.John Pack Lambert (talk) 18:44, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

Tag team exclusionism

This edit history for Anne Hampton Brewster strikes me as underhanded, joint attempts to block another editor, which seems totally out of line. I find it even more objectionable because they did not respond at all to my comments on the talk page .John Pack Lambert (talk) 19:23, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

Milowent, Avt tor and I are not a tag team, and you didn't make any comments until only a few minutes ago. Remember that it's generally a bad idea to edit-war against multiple editors, which is what you've been doing pbp 19:29, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

I almost added Anne Hampton Brewster to Category:American women writers but decided for the time being to give into the persistent threats by PBP, and not do anything. Why do I have to sit back and tolerate their exclusion of Brewster from women cats?John Pack Lambert (talk) 19:43, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

Well, Milowent waited all of 2 minutes to revert my totally justified addition.John Pack Lambert (talk) 19:52, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

• I just noticed something else. I have made two edits on the page today. 1-I added Category:American women novelists. This was not a revert. That was all I did. 2-I reverted the removal of Category:American women novelists. How could it be even possible that reverting again would be a third revert, as far as I can tell, that would be a second revert? Am I right?John Pack Lambert (talk) 19:58, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

(talk page stalker)::Last comment I'll make on this - but when the whole thing comes down to counting reverts and wikilawyering about the blue linked policies then the plot has truly been lost. The "rules" are to defend the encyclopedia, not the embattled participants. Begoon  20:36, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

• I am really trying to not get into a fight with some people over more points. It is quite clear that some want to pick fights.John Pack Lambert (talk) 22:05, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

Hi John - I looked at that page and I agree with your additions - so I've added a few more cats for Anne, and commented on the talk page. I wouldn't revert any more though, and I won't either. We've said our piece. The cats under discussion are in no danger of being emptied either, so I'm also not going to go around looking for people to move. People are very emotional right now, and it's hard to reason with them when they're so emotional. Why not just move to another part of the tree, leaving women writers alone entirely - you've been under intense pressure and media scrutiny, and I feel for you and am sorry this happened - but you may be best just chilling out for a while - this comes from someone who respects the work you do. When you come back, there will be plenty of work to do - our cats are an absolute mess, as I'm sure you know... --Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 23:28, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

I greatly enjoyed...

...reading your contribution here. Wise words. Regards, Manning (talk) 22:47, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

thanks, appreciate it. --Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 23:25, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

Cats

Hi Obi-wan, I saw your edit summary on George Eliot: "per guidance as of now, gendered cats do not diffuse". Does that mean there has been some policy agreement on rewriting cat structure? Recent discussions have ranged over so many pages I have lost track. Is there one main page where this is being worked out? Thanks Span (talk) 00:57, 2 May 2013 (UTC)

It's on WP:EGRS. That's been the guidance for some time - it isn't always followed, but that is the general rule - gendered cats don't diffuse.

I think I've come up with a very simple heuristic for categorization, that is so stupid and simple I can't believe I didn't think of it before. The algorithm is thus:

1. Take your person. Now, remove from your mind all gender, ethnicity, sexuality, and religion - go back to whatever the 'default' might be for that particular job say.
2. Now categorize that person as if they were that "default".
3. Now, go back and add them to the gendered/sexuality/religion/etc categories.

I think this will always give you the correct result. Try it with George Eliot, let me know what you come up with.

But more importantly, come to here, and comment on a new approach using category intersection: Wikipedia_talk:Category_intersection#A_working_category_intersection_today which would make this whole mess go away.--Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 01:08, 2 May 2013 (UTC)

• I think applying this to Category:Female models and Category:Actresses is not reasonable though.John Pack Lambert (talk) 01:38, 2 May 2013 (UTC)

Another place it gets tricky is when people are in Category:African-American women poets. I just realized I neglected to even fix Linda Addison (poet) correctly because I forgot to put her in Category:African-American poets.John Pack Lambert (talk) 01:42, 2 May 2013 (UTC)

The discussions on EGRS don't seem to have reached much of a conclusion. Did I miss something?Span (talk) 11:21, 2 May 2013 (UTC)

No - those discussions are ongoing, but the extant guidance still holds - which means, categories for gender should not diffuse - the fact that people were diffusing them is what led to this brouhaha in the first place. I personally disagree with this approach (I've suggested others), but for now I'm following it.--Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 17:25, 2 May 2013 (UTC)

By popular demand...

Misplaced Pages:Categories_for_discussion/Log/2013_May_2#Law_review_people

The guy who wrote the CatScan tool ...

... is Magnus Manske, the author of the first MediaWiki software. See Misplaced Pages:Magnus_Manske_Day. Your idea sounds great (no time just now to look at it in detail, but the general drift sounds perfect). Andreas JN466 03:35, 2 May 2013 (UTC)

As I know Magnus a little from local meet-ups I have dropped him a mail asking him whether he could have a look at this. Andreas JN466 03:46, 2 May 2013 (UTC)

Hey, thanks a ton- that would be great. Could you send me a link to a page on the German wikipedia that uses cat-scan? I've looked but can't find one. cheers, --Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 04:26, 2 May 2013 (UTC)

Here is one: http://de.wikipedia.org/Kategorie:Mann CatScan is linked at the top. Best, Andreas JN466 04:28, 2 May 2013 (UTC)

Ok - does it ever fill out catscan for you, with default intersections? sorry don't read german - are you expected go to into it and enter the cats you want to intersect? My proposal is a bit simpler - give default links which pre-fill cat intersections and run the tool. Do they do that in german wikipedia? --Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 05:16, 2 May 2013 (UTC)

Not to my knowledge. They also consider CatScan to be a band-aid solution; originally, I've been told, people expected that one day there would be a proper category intersection search system in MediaWiki, and they designed their categories accordingly, but it never arrived. Are you in touch with Magnus? He tells me that the kind of search function you and I would want imposes serious server overheads. It seems that is the main reason why this kind of functionality has not been implemented to date. Andreas JN466 12:44, 3 May 2013 (UTC)

Ok, thanks Jayen466. Would you mind putting him in touch with me? You have my contact info - I'd love to chat with him offline and get a sense of what is/isn't possible. Appreciate your help - --Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 14:43, 3 May 2013 (UTC)

The missing novelists

I have found at least three people not yet in Category:American novelists because they were not dispersed down from Category:American writers. I have a suspicion though that the total would well over 100.John Pack Lambert (talk) 20:18, 2 May 2013 (UTC)

help with Category: American novelists

I just realized that editing Category:American novelists to make the change that I proposed is not straightforward. Could you help me do that, or something like that? Correct me if I am wrong, but this recent incident started because Filipacchi thought that that list is intended to be complete, when it is not, and because the list was not properly maintained. I really think it would help the page to have a disclaimer on these two points. You know more than me about these topics; what do you think? How can I make that happen? Thanks in advance. Olorinish (talk) 02:08, 3 May 2013 (UTC)

Sorry, I don't understand what you mean.--Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 23:00, 3 May 2013 (UTC)

Talkback

Silverseren 01:24, 5 May 2013 (UTC)

Request

Please notify Misplaced Pages:WikiProject Children's literature of the CfD for the children's novels category so that editors familiar with the field can weigh in. I apologized and extended an olive branch but the reverting on Hemingway continued and categories continue to be put up without discussion in the relevant areas. I'm done now. Truthkeeper (talk) 02:31, 5 May 2013 (UTC)

Happy to notify related projects. I left a note about Hemingway on your page. --Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 02:41, 5 May 2013 (UTC)

I replied; you ignored. I'm done here. Truthkeeper (talk) 02:44, 5 May 2013 (UTC)

?? Waaa? I think you misunderstand what I did. Remember - read diffs carefully plz! --Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 02:45, 5 May 2013 (UTC)

Reply

Turn that around, though. Why is it acceptable to diffuse in one area when we have a very recent consensus that it is not acceptable in another closely related area? I have repeatedly called for an RFC on precisely this question, and what bothers me about your conduct is that you seem intent on pressing forward with diffusion on other categories, despite the ongoing discussion and despite the objections of multiple editors. This is clearly a heated debate, and ANI is not the best forum for such a debate - which is why an RFC is necessary. If you are so confident in your interpretation of policy, then put it to an RFC to make sure that consensus lies where you believe it lies. We have an editing guideline that has come into question at a high-profile, high-participation CFD. That would seem to indicate that the guideline (not even a policy!) needs to be looked at. I'm concerned that you seem to have no intention of looking at it, or of acknowledging that consensus may have changed on the issue thanks to this incident. The point is that we don't know, and can't - until we have an RFC. UltraExactZZ ~ Did 14:43, 6 May 2013 (UTC)

Understood, but I believe you are reading that consensus far too broadly. Tim, one of the admins who actually enacted the results, agrees - he's posted same at ANI. SilverSeren, JohnPackLambert, BrownHairedGirl - they all agree as far as I can tell. The way I read the CFD is, don't ghettoize by gender, and I'm complying by that (the CFD didn't say anything new, in fact, it only reinforced the existing guidelines). The editing guideline of WP:EGRS] nor WP:Categorization was not put in question - it was really about whether people were complying with it or not! The CFD didn't say anything about diffusion in general. As for the RFC, I've never set one up, and I don't even know what question to ask - e.g. "Hi wikipedia - should we comply with WP:EGRS and WP:Categorization?" - I think if someone else wants to change that guidance, the onus is on them to propose the RFC (Carwil is currently drafting something) - but as I've noted, doing an RFC on American novelists is chauvanist in the extreme - if we do an RFC, it should be around the broader issues, like how do we rapidly de-ghettoize the whole tree, not how do we deal with one special snowflake cat which happened to get a bit of media attention. In any case, I think a topic ban is a bit excessive, especially given all of the other work I've been doing to address the structural issues at play here, such a proposing a prototype for intersecting categories at Category:Singaporean poets - this whole discussion is too much focused on American novelists, which is just the tip of the iceberg. A new article could be written about us tomorrow, and how we're still ghettoizing African american poets, or Nigerian women novelists, or Singaporean writers of chinese descent - ghettoization is endemic, and I'm actually proposing practical solutions! So please reconsider the topic ban vote, I've already dropped the stick and won't be moving any more women bios, and on the general topic of diffusing novelists, I have by far the fewest edits here - others have been much more active. Best regards,--Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 14:56, 6 May 2013 (UTC)

I don't think we're going to agree on this at all. Perhaps a topic ban is excessive, but it seemed less so than a total moratorium on all category diffusion related to living persons pending an RFC on how - or if - such diffusion should take place. And that's where we are, frankly. UltraExactZZ ~ Did 15:50, 6 May 2013 (UTC)

Hi Ultra, thanks for your response. I would love to work with you on such an RFC - but I don't think it should just be about diffusion, I think it should be about (a) clarifying guidelines around creation of ethnic/gendered cats, etc. (discussion started, but not moving, at WP:EGRS, and (b) proposing ways to rapidly de-ghettoize the tree. People focus way too much on the American novelists - the problem is so much bigger. If you'd like to collaborate with me on this, let me know where and we'll get started, I've never done an RFC before, so would welcome your assistance.

As a side note, I've realized that we've run into a real emotional attachment people have to the term American novelist, while American poet or American writer or American journalist or American politician doesn't carry the same discursive power. But I'm still quite boggled that people don't realize that Category:20th-century American novelists are, in fact, AMERICAN NOVELISTS - we haven't taken away the power of that brand, we just stuck them with people who wrote at the same time as them.

As to the topic ban, I'm quite proud of my record on categorization to date - for example,

• I de-ghettozied Maya Angelou, Louis Armstrong, and many others -
• I've come up with a potential (hack) solution for category intersections esp around gender/ethnicity categories, and created a proof of concept around same (check it out, and let me know your thoughts please)
• I've nominated a number of categories for deletion which only served to ghettoize and were not in line with our guidance at WP:EGRS
• I created a quiz to help editors understand the challenges around categorizing in a non-ghettoizing way (Please come by and take the quiz! would love to see your answers)
• I added a simple link to the top of the Category:American novelists category that enumerates all of the novelists including those in sub-categories (again, as a proof of concept).
• I tagged a number of non-diffusing categories under Category:American novelists as such, like the whole ethnic tree
• etc etc.

I'd also appreciate if you'd again reconsider your !vote - I really am in good faith trying to find solutions to the deep problem here - I've been in recent discussions with WMF, and with the developer of the catscan tool for example about implementing category intersections now - which would remove this question of ghettoization entirely. A topic ban would mean all of those good faith efforts would have to come to a screeching stop, all for a few diffs which a few people disgree with. Thanks for your consideration,--Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 16:15, 6 May 2013 (UTC)

The only think I'm persuaded about is how little I care about these categories. Do whatever you like. There isn't consensus for a topic ban. UltraExactZZ ~ Did 14:12, 7 May 2013 (UTC)

American novelists

I am somewhat surprised that people are so intent on not dispersing this. ALthough no one has yet actually objected to the by century sub-cats, and there is no reason to not fully disperse to them, so I will keep it up. I tried to ask the editor re-adding people to not do so when they have been dispersed, but I am not sure he will respond.John Pack Lambert (talk) 19:12, 6 May 2013 (UTC)

• From what I have seen, the only reason that you were dragged to ANI is because you edited an article that people are paying really close attention to. I am still not sure what I will do when I get to the Fs in the American novelists category, but that will not be for a while yet.John Pack Lambert (talk) 22:24, 6 May 2013 (UTC)

I'd just skip it - too many people watching, and not worth the drama. Someone will move her at some point - it doesn't really matter that much.--Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 22:29, 6 May 2013 (UTC)

American fantasy writers

I have posed a question on the talk page of Category:American fantasy writers about possibly putting in Malcolm Marmorstein. Marmorstein is a screenwriter who wrote the screenplay to Pete's Dragon which is clearly a work of fantasy. On the other hand, he is not a novelits, and the category is currently a sub-cat of Category:American novelists. There are three possible courses of action, and I am not even sure the best way to seek them out. One possible action is to create a CfD to split the cateogry. Another is to just unilaterally split the category, and move the novelitists to a novelits sub-cat. The third is to do nothing, and assume by Category:American fantasy writers we are using the term "writer" in a sense that does not include screenwriters and possibly also excludes playwrights. What we would do with a short story fantasy writer who never wrote a novel is another issue.John Pack Lambert (talk) 19:54, 6 May 2013 (UTC)

This goes to the genre question, I started a post at wikiproject novels, you should join there and ask the question there. It's a good one indeed...--Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 22:30, 6 May 2013 (UTC)

Your comments

Re: the quiz, I'm really not all that interested in taking part in a hypothetical exercise that serves only to display different people's opinions and isn't actually going to have an effect on anything in and of itself. YMMV, I suppose, but it's not something I'm going to put much priority on participating in.

Ok - for me it's interesting, as it's not so much about opinion (and who is "right" or "wrong") but about how well can we apply our rules and ensure someone isn't ghettoized - so for that I think it's a useful exercise - it is fairly easy (though not always) to detect if someone has been ghettoized. Given that you wrote a fair amount of the guidance, I'd really love to have your answers, but I understand if you don't want to participate. I was also thinking we could use the findings of the quiz, and the questions it raises, to help refine the guidelines, so I do see it as having a practical purpose...

Re: Indian women novelists, I'm not sure I understand your question. Which parent category should or shouldn't be getting diffused by the women novelists category in either case? (I suspect, for the record, that the answer to your question lies in the distinction between "diffused" and "diffusable" — it's not necessary for all of the diffusion work to already have been done for a category to be considered "diffusing", if the category is still "diffusable" — but I can't be sure of that without knowing a lot more about what you're asking about.)

Category:Indian novelists has no other subcats, so it can't diffuse otherwise. Thus, the women would be the last-rung-of-the-ladder in this case. Most of the other novelists categories are like this. My understanding is, if you have an EGRS cat, then the parent should be able to be fully diffused on some other criteria, no?

Re: ghettoization, for the record it's not helpful to apply that test to a parent category that is itself already an EGRS category. That particular test is only meant to be applied to occupational categories (e.g. "African-American poets", "LGBT economists from the United States") and not to whether something like Category:LGBT African Americans is warranted or not — it would certainly be possible to make a case that it isn't needed, but the ghettoization test isn't relevant to the question because none of its parents are occupational in nature. Bearcat (talk) 22:16, 6 May 2013 (UTC)

Ah - ok that is more subtle. So then they aren't ghettoized by not being in the head cat? I see your point re: jobs, but I'm not sure the guidance says this (and we all agree the guidance needs work). It's just in the algorithms I've been trying to sort in my head, you have to go up the tree, removing facets, until you've removed all of your facets. So, African-american women poets has to go to American female poets, African american poets, and then onwards to American poets. doesn't the same apply in the LGBT tree - and if you don't have a fully diffusing parent, doesn't that mean the main LGBT people cat will end up with mostly white dudes? Perhaps a solution would be to create Category:LGBT European Americans, or expand it otherwise to ensure everyone is in at least one cat and you don't have a default populated only by whites.--Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 22:27, 6 May 2013 (UTC)

Talkback

SarahStierch (talk) 04:16, 7 May 2013 (UTC)

Talkback

—Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 05:24, 7 May 2013 (UTC)

Categories in Being and Categories Manifested

Not to reinvent the wheel, but it seems atom of category content is 'article title';each atom can have one or more 'membership tags'. The membership tags EACH, indivdually IMPLY a category; for example, for author Xysys
&writers &American &woman &novelist &short-story-writer &essayist &criticism &historical-novels &commedy-of-manners-novels &post-modern-short-stories &childern's-short-stories

Rather than a fixed list of Catagory: articles the user is served a page of tags that gives the ability to drag and drop to build a category. And then that intersection is created. And served to the user [with the index bar to choose by initial letter of last name of the author article. In the simplest case that might be all writers; a potentially gigantic list, BUT ONLY ONE PAGE IS RETRIEVED AND SERVED. More complex intersections require more preprocessing but a shorter potential list, but still just 1 page served. Statistics will quickly identify the most used sets of intersections and THOSE sets will be preprocessed ahead of need. A user can build, on-the-fly a category of 'American Old White Men Agrarian Movement Novelists' as easily as a category of Post-Feminist Puertoricano Independencias Novelists. There will be a system learning curve that results in the most requested categories being preprocessed and ready-to-go.

The user should have the ability to save the list of intersecting categories for further use. And, of course an 'Advanced Mode' could include boolean operators allowing queries like American Women Novelists who do NOT write children's books.

From what I see now (IF I see correctly), categorization puts a big burden on categorizers who evidently can be pretty divorced from the subject matter. How much better a tag system more or less under the wing of the appropriate subject group. I really think this kind of approach might be about as neutral as categorization can become. It might be interesting to try this in a relatively small field; say 'American Novelists' Neonorange (talk) 07:34, 7 May 2013 (UTC)

great minds think alike.. Take a look at Category:Singaporean poets for a prototype of a simpler version of this same idea that i put together - it links out to an external tool.The difference is, the intersections are determined in advance by other editors - if you want a new intersection, you can do so but you have to type in the category names. It also doesn't page the results but I've asked the developer of the catscan tool to do just that and render in a Misplaced Pages-like font. I think the gender/ethnic slices just make it harder to categorize people - it would be great to facet out nationality as well, but that may impact performance too much, so instead of American + man we may have to create "American men" and "Singaporean men" - to avoid a single list of all men, which would have performance implications. I also like the idea of caching the common results. Your other ideas are good but I made the prototype considering what was possible now, and without changes to media wiki software. If you look at the wikidata project, they are going this way of factets/category intersections using a different semantic-web type approach - this will be much more robust and flexible, but it may be 1 or 2 years before we get there. I think the call-out to the tool can be done today; and not that painfully. Go to the talk page of WP:Category intersection for more thoughts on this idea and how to move it forward - help is needed and welcome! Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 11:13, 7 May 2013 (UTC)

one more thing - a lot of people use the word tags when describing this idea but I think it's not a good idea to talk about these as tags - tags in the web 2.0 are flat and non-hierarchical, whereas you actually want nested categories here. For example I'd like to be able to label someone as being from New York City, but if I search on "x from New York (state)" they should show up. Jobs is another example - I may have deep classification schemes for doctors (diff specialties), but if I ask for all doctors I should get them all. --Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 11:30, 7 May 2013 (UTC)

In the interest of developing a common vocabulary for category discussion: you just used 'facet' in the same way I just used 'tag'? How about 'signifier'? It seems to me that the fraught categories will mainly be those which have great cultural (in a very broad sense) significance. Jobs (such as medical doctors) less so. On the other hand, D.O. and M.D. etc. could be a problem. Neonorange (talk) 23:51, 7 May 2013 (UTC)

Yes, I've been using that term, someone else used it and I liked it. For me, tags is not a good word - since tags dont have relationships amongst themselves. We do want facets, but we want those facets to have relationships as well. 'Signifier' is a good word too. I think if we could do category intersection especially for ethnicity/gender/sexuality/religion, that would be a big and important start. The rest can come later. --Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 00:42, 8 May 2013 (UTC)

Starting with ethnicity/gender/sexuality/religion is a good idea. That cluster is likely to be closely watched. And starting there is responsive to the recent wider criticisms. 'Facets' is fine with me, though I do like the connotations of 'signifier' (see the Misplaced Pages article Signifier and then the article Indexical for this statement "In linguistics and in philosophy of language, an indexical behavior or utterance points to (or indicates) some state of affairs." A question - you (or someone else) as mentioned the difficulty of increasing the sophistication of handling of categories. Is this a bandwidth limitation - or a preprocessing limitation (computer power used to select, package, format, and present results to be served in response to a user query? Is there a succinct treatment of 'how Misplaced Pages machines do what they do'? Neonorange (talk) 03:53, 8 May 2013 (UTC)

Diffusing novelists

With only 4 by century cats, I do not think it will be that hard for people to go through and make sure that the people in those categories are also put in the appropriate other possible sub-cats. No one has even nominated the by century sub-cats for anything. I am 100% sure that the 18th-century and 19th-century cats will survive, and have little doubt the other two will. John Pack Lambert (talk) 16:51, 7 May 2013 (UTC)

True - but if you're in the middle of doings lots of edits, why not wait until we have settled gengre cats and whether male novelists will survive? just seems like dual work, and all those in Category:American novelists are also a list of those needing diffusion - if you diffuse now, you will lose that list. --Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 20:42, 7 May 2013 (UTC)

Also, why not start by ensuring the sub-cats of Category:American novelists are all classified correctly in the century cats and the male/female cats accordingly? That should be non-controversial for sure.--Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 00:43, 8 May 2013 (UTC)

Category-based search

Regarding this edit, I presume you meant "search time > 10 seconds"? isaacl (talk) 23:25, 7 May 2013 (UTC)

ack. thanks! --Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 00:43, 8 May 2013 (UTC)

List of vegetarians

I think your solution is the best one by a country mile. It removes all editorial bias whatsoever. Betty Logan (talk) 00:28, 9 May 2013 (UTC)

thx. I just read through the responses, and realized that the various sides were unlikely to see eye to eye. Do you think SV will sign up for it? --Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 00:53, 9 May 2013 (UTC)

Nope, she is intent on getting rid of all "porn stars", but if there is wide support for the randomization approach then she would have to live with it. Betty Logan (talk) 02:14, 9 May 2013 (UTC)

Hmm. I don't see the problem with a porn star in general, though I do see her point - why *must* we have a porn star, and why *must* it be a woman? That doesn't make sense. But if the algorithm chooses one, c'est la vie... --Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 02:20, 9 May 2013 (UTC)

FWIW

If there is an RfC - and unless things calm down, there will be one - it's not really a great idea to go from user page to user page explaining your position. Think of it this way: let's say you and I are in opposition or disagreement, and the community needs to achieve consensus (well in my view, it has, but that's another issue). Have a look at my contribs over the last how many days and see whether you see me discussing this on individual talk pages. Just saying. Truthkeeper (talk) 01:10, 10 May 2013 (UTC)

I just didn't want to spam the discussion with a restatement - and this is a new entrant who hasn't contributed at all in this debate as far as I can tell... I also just wish we could focus on the real problem, and not this one (which is rather banal).--Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 01:12, 10 May 2013 (UTC)

I'm logging out now - but you're not getting my point. Truthkeeper (talk) 01:14, 10 May 2013 (UTC)

WP:ANI/I discussion notification

Hello. There is currently a discussion at Misplaced Pages:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents regarding an issue with which you may have been involved. Thank you.--Shirt58 (talk) 10:20, 10 May 2013 (UTC)

Talkback

And again! NickCT (talk) 16:15, 10 May 2013 (UTC)

Yet again. NickCT (talk) 16:56, 10 May 2013 (UTC)

J. R. R. Tolkien categorization

Two people have objected to my putting J. R. R. Tolkien in Category:20th-century British novelists because he is in Category:J. R. R. Tolkien which is in that category. However I thought we treated eponymous cats as non-diffusing. I half wonder if we should even put eponymous cats as sub-cats of novelists cats. The whole thing seems a bit strange.John Pack Lambert (talk) 19:54, 10 May 2013 (UTC)

hmm. Yes in general, the categorization of eponymous articles vs cats is often decided on a case-by-case basis - see WP:Categorization - but in the case of a novelist, I would vote for non-diffusing (at least for the novelist, not for the other stuff). They aren't *always* non-diffusing though - there are examples in the guidance of diffusing eponymous cats. --Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 20:15, 10 May 2013 (UTC)

Women poets verses other things

Did a newspaper article really claim that we have fewer articles on women poets than pornstars? Who made this patently false claim, and where was it made, and when? If that claim was made then I really think Filipachi's attacks were fully misguided.John Pack Lambert (talk) 15:35, 11 May 2013 (UTC)

I'm not sure if they made the claim, or just parroted it. The wikipediocracy article on sexism did make the claim, but they later corrected it with actual figures. I think the James Gleick article quoted the claim, which is itself a bit irresponsible without checking facts. In any case, I don't think the claim was ever true, for all or even just the american tree.--Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 17:26, 11 May 2013 (UTC)

• I figued I would nip the issue in the bud before another false claim along these lines was made. I have started working on Category:American women journalists so that it will not be subject to false smaller than claims. So far I have found that Category:American newspaper reporters and correspondents has little overlap with the women category, evne though close to half of its contents are women.John Pack Lambert (talk) 19:30, 13 May 2013 (UTC)

Very specific leavings of people in Category:American novelists

Ann Bannon and Stephen Crane have been returned to Category:American novelists despite being in century specific sub-cats. There is no explanation given for this action. I was half of the opinion to try to diffuse them again, but started discussions on the talk pages of both of them. It seems we may come to a point soon where four or five people will be left at Category:American novelists. I guess it still will take a lot more work, but it seems sloppy to have just two people before the letter e.John Pack Lambert (talk) 17:21, 11 May 2013 (UTC)

I wouldn't worry about it. If there's really to be an RFC (we shall see), perhaps it's better to deghettoize other parts of the tree like American women poets, etc, then wait to see what consensus is. There are some who strongly do not like the idea of a diffusing century cat, for reasons I still don't get... --Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 17:27, 11 May 2013 (UTC)

If they do not like the by century cats, they are free to nominate them for deletion. The specific response to my comment on the Stephen Crane talk page, that I should "stop messing with categorization", really drives me nuts. At present we have lots and lots of people who are clearly not in the right categories.John Pack Lambert (talk) 17:32, 11 May 2013 (UTC)

• The person doing this insistance on keeping the people in the parent category even admits they have no objection to the by century categories, so their actions are really making no sense at all.John Pack Lambert (talk) 21:01, 11 May 2013 (UTC)

  In a different set of categories, I found this problem easily solved by use of the allinclude template: {{all included|the category|the other mention of parent category}} that allows diffusion into subcats AND keeps the general list. (Sometimes both are needed and this is an elegant solution to the ongoing debate). For it in use, see Category:Horse breeds. Hope this helps. Montanabw 21:20, 14 May 2013 (UTC)

Asian journalists at CfD

Is this a typo Category:American journalists of Indian descent to Category:American journalists of Indian descent? Vegaswikian (talk) 20:16, 13 May 2013 (UTC)

yup sorry fixed now.--Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 20:29, 13 May 2013 (UTC)

Direct attacks

I have now been nominated for banning at ANI because I put Filipachi in Category:American women journalists. They are claiming I directly ghetoized her because I did not put her in Category:American journalists, when in fact I put her in Category:American columnists. This is very outrageous, especially since one person has supported this move that has no basis in actual fact.John Pack Lambert (talk) 21:42, 13 May 2013 (UTC)

• Hmm, is my having actually removed Amanda Filipacchi from the category in question a-worth bringing up at the ANI, b-of any merit there, c-going to make me get banned for "edit warring". The whole attack seems over the top.John Pack Lambert (talk) 22:28, 13 May 2013 (UTC)
• Looking at the ANI I seem to be still being attacked for what makes no sense at all. I did not move Filipachi out of any gender-neutral categories. The whole thing is very frustrating.John Pack Lambert (talk) 22:36, 13 May 2013 (UTC)
• The whole thing is causing me undue stress and anxiety. Why do people think they can ban users for following the rules in adding categories? We even have a category that will not tend towards ghetoization. It really distresses me that people seem to want to punish me because the media has attacked actions that are in part my fault. The whole thing is very distressing.John Pack Lambert (talk) 01:14, 14 May 2013 (UTC)

Like I said before, just don't touch that special bio. Too many trigger-happy guardians. Not worth it. They will categorize the special bio appropriately in time, according to consensus. Meanwhile, if you want to contribute, just keep on de-ghettoizing - seek out past things you've done that may have ghettoized, and reverse them. A good record is the best thing if you're eager to continue - or if not, just go do something else for a while. I don't think the AN/ANI will result in a banning, especially for what you did - putting her in a gendered and non-gendered sub-cat of Category:American journalists - you've violated no rules whatsoever! One thing that may help - a quick note on your front user page, that says "In the past, I mistakenly categorized people into only gendered categories, this was a mistake, and I'm making up for it (then show edits)." It's ok to make a mistake, if you own up to it. Stay strong, you'll be ok.--Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 01:21, 14 May 2013 (UTC)

• What is going on with the most recent edit to the AN where someone wants to ban me because I put someone in Category:American pornographic film actresses whose opening line was "Tané McClure (born June 8, 1958) is an American singer and pornographic actress." What is going on? Are they going to ban all the other users who added people to that category? This is more than bizarre. I really feel attacked.John Pack Lambert (talk) 01:27, 14 May 2013 (UTC)

easy... just take it easy... they have lit torches and are bringing out pitchforks - but the truth will set you free. Just do careful categorization, follow the guidance, and you'll be fine. --Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 01:33, 14 May 2013 (UTC)

Not when people try to kill you for following the lead.John Pack Lambert (talk) 01:39, 14 May 2013 (UTC)

• I am actually glad I removed Filipacchi from Caegory:American novelists even if she was put back in that category. At least the next time someone tries to add someone else back , they cannot claim I am treating Filipachi differently. I am still totally puzzled by the attack on my categorization of Tané McClure. I was following the lead.John Pack Lambert (talk) 01:54, 14 May 2013 (UTC)
• It still feels like it is open season to attack with extreme prejudice John for any edit he has ever done. This is more odd because there is an editor who actually changed the lead.John Pack Lambert (talk) 01:58, 14 May 2013 (UTC)

Hey, you may not have realized

...that templating you was more or less required per probation terms. In this instance, DTTR (which is only an essay anyway) does not apply. I mention this due to your edit summary here. A dif of you being informed is needed for logging, and the content is set. While it is possible to handwrite a notification, the precise same content must be included, so we use the template. No disrespect was intended. I hope this information is helpful! KillerChihuahua 02:58, 14 May 2013 (UTC)

Thx for the civil explanation. Cheers --Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 03:11, 14 May 2013 (UTC)

Truthkeeper

I am really frustrated by Truthkeeper's attacks. I am also outraged that people want to attack me for following the lead in categorizaation. Especially considering at other times I have been attacked for removing categories that have no mention anywhere in the article. If someone put something in the lead that does not belong there, should not that person be the one critizied for it? I see no reason to not categorizwe someone based on what the lead says.John Pack Lambert (talk) 17:01, 14 May 2013 (UTC)

I am so frustrated. I am trying to improve the project, but some people want to kill me for it. No matter what I do someone attacks me. If I focus too specifically on one type of categorization tI am attacked for that. Yet if I try to fix the overall categorization of an article based on what the lead says I am attacked for that. What is with people always attacking me. I can take it anymore.John Pack Lambert (talk) 17:03, 14 May 2013 (UTC)

• The attack just does not make sense. One suggestion for a category rule is "it is something that can be mentioned in a lead". So now people are trying to kill me for categorizing something based on the lead. This really does feel like a witchhunt.John Pack Lambert (talk) 17:14, 14 May 2013 (UTC)
• People wonder why wikipedia does not improve much. It is because any attempt you make to try to improve it is attacked. If the opening sentace to someone is "Andrea Finess was an American dancer, singer and politcian", she should be in all those categories. If people do not think she should be in all those categories they should edit the oepning sentance, not try to kill the person who did it. It is all the more outrageous because these people are not bringing up these issues on my talk page.John Pack Lambert (talk) 17:18, 14 May 2013 (UTC)

RFC threat

Someone has now suggested that an RFC be oepend against me. This is very worrying to me, especially since BPB has the long-standing grudge to do it, and Truthkeeper, Milocent and a few others might just be willing to try it. I think it is a totally uncalled for threat. No matter what I do people attack me. I am really, really, really worried about this. I have tried to abide by the rules. I have tried to make sure everyone put in ] is also in a non-gendered journalists sub-cat. However people are still trying to destroy me. Maybe I am overly worried. However I do not want another RFC, and I think that creating the link to a potential RFC was uncalled for. I really am tempted to delete that section. There is absolutely no reason to start an RFC against me. However I am realy afriad someone will try if I do not do anything.John Pack Lambert (talk) 18:41, 14 May 2013 (UTC)

by century novelists categories

Why do people complain about these and yet not start CfDs about them. Actually one of the people I brought this up with said that they thought the categories work. Some people almost seem to think that the status quo ante was acceptable. I really doubt that. They seem to actually want to shunt off romatic fiction writers and mystery writers, and then have Category:American novelists limited to some special group. Creating a CfD is very easy, yet they constantly gripe about things without really making a point.John Pack Lambert (talk) 22:44, 14 May 2013 (UTC)

cuisine of cats (that sounds so wrong...)

I'm not sure if you've noticed--I'm sure you have a lot of stuff on your watchlist--but I made a proposal at the cuisines of x category discussion, and I was trying very specifically to address what I think are your concerns, so I'd really like your opinion so everything wraps up neatly and a collegial atmosphere and not the usual nonsense that dogs discussions about nomenclature. Basically what I'm saying is, and I hope this came through in my commentary, I understand where you are coming from, and you have an excellent point when you say that certain foods are definitely associated with certain places (deep dish, Chicago; gumbo, New Orleans; etc). That's a real world categorization that people make, and therefore makes sense--is necessary actually. Our only point of difference is the definition of 'cuisine,' which I think I can explain better this way: if I tell you we're going to an Italian restaurant, you will have an immediate idea of the kinds of things you can probably expect, given the general spread of Italian cuisine through the western world. Same goes if I say French, or Diner, or Southern, or Tex-Mex; you will likely have an immediate sense of at least some things that will be on the menu. But what if I tell you we're going to a Pittsburgh restaurant? Or a Chicago restaurant? You'll think one dish. Maybe two... if you can fill up a whole menu, you've got a cuisine. Am I making more sense? It's difficult (but educational, so thank you) to have to explain what are common assumptions inside the industry.

Anyway, I look forward to your next contribution to the discussion; we may not agree entirely, but it is clear that your thoughts are deliberate and informed. The Potato Hose ↘ 05:58, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

thx, appreciate the note; I responded further there. I see your point, but I think it's a matter of degree, and it feels a bit POV to label some things as cuisine and others as "food culture". I think we either have enough articles to create a cuisine cat, or we don't at all and just slot them into "culture". Otherwise it seems a bit of a downgrade.--Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 21:38, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

Barnstar

Copy and paste this onto your user page, because you deserve it.

		The Barnstar of Diplomacy
		For helping to resolve the JPL proposed ban conflict Asarelah (talk) 21:25, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

thx. appreciate it.--Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 21:36, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

Project Qworty

Hi there. You've been in discussions on my talk page regarding Qworty, so might wish to contribute ideas, etc., to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/User_talk:NaymanNoland (section: "Project Qworty"). If you haven't read today's Salon article addressing this disaster, it's here: http://www.salon.com/2013/05/17/revenge_ego_and_the_corruption_of_wikipedia/ NaymanNoland (talk) 22:05, 17 May 2013 (UTC)

very wise

Jedi master. — Ched :  ?  05:25, 18 May 2013 (UTC)

Thx. I just think people might be forgetting what happened at Amanda Filipacchi and why the first salon article was written. We're heading down the same path on his article now... --Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 05:33, 18 May 2013 (UTC)

Spam

Yes, that's better flatter. Thanks. Thought I needed to continue discussion over many pages, per name. Widefox; talk 20:14, 19 May 2013 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Defender of the Wiki Barnstar
	for this   little green rosetta(talk) central scrutinizer  02:35, 20 May 2013 (UTC)

Apology

I wanted to stop by and apologize for my intemperate closing comment at Misplaced Pages:Articles for deletion/Robert Clark Young. I've now given it a proper close, which I should have done initially. It was very frustrating to be the (seemingly) only person who felt it was critical to remove the COI content immediately, but I should not have directed that frustration at my fellow editors. I'm going to take a break from Misplaced Pages for a while, but I didn't want to log out before trying to make things right with the participants at the AfD. Hopefully we will meet again under happier circumstances. Best, 28bytes (talk) 10:34, 20 May 2013 (UTC)

Thx, and no worries, water under the bridge already.--Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 03:30, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

Question from Viriditas

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

I've never seen a greater example. Clearly, when you accused me of "hiding" a discussion, you were referring only to yourself. Viriditas (talk) 23:32, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

Hi V. If you'll read carefully, you'll notice I said "not _immediately_ hide this stuff" - and I didn't mean "hide" in a bad way, I really just meant archive. In the case of that other revert, those threads were several years old, as opposed to 10 days. That's the difference here, so no hypocrisy on my part.- as you noticed, I set up the bot to archive after 6 months, and I stated I would be ok with archiving after 30 days. Just 10 days is a bit much, esp with all of the attention. Again, that other revert was for stuff many years old. Cheers, --Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 23:39, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

Except, an administrator stepped forward and very politely asked for it to stay, and gave very specific reasons, all the while requesting more discussion. You shut him down and reverted. I cannot imagine your rationale behind this. I'm curious, I keep seeing your name pop up throughout this whole Qworty thing, from the categorization discussion to now archiving pages related to Qworty and his attacks on BLPs. In fact, you've popped up twice on my watchlist in just the last two days, preventing the archiving of old talk on Talk:Sondra Peterson and now force archiving on Talk:Robert Clark Young. What's up with that? Viriditas (talk) 23:52, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

Just a gnome, or a librarian, I guess. I reverted the restoration per BRD, and added my discussion to the talk page. He didn't respond, so my guess is, he concurred with my reasoning, and he'd already been reverted once by someone else. My reasoning on both pages is basically the same - auto-archive stale discussions, based on frequency of conversation - the bot doesn't have bias. Anyway... back to our regular scheduled programming... If you really want to be inspector gadget on this, you may look at the history here, to notice that I was the one who actually reverted the clever info-hiding that Qworty and his socks had accomplished, and restored the archive to it's full glory - if you perform the diff this way, check how he tweaked a link to break it as it floated across the wire - clever, right? I didn't even realize that one until I compared the diffs carefully.--Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 00:08, 22 May 2013 (UTC)

Guess what else is weird - your name keeps popping up on my watchlist! --Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 00:09, 22 May 2013 (UTC)

But you keep ignoring discussion and just plod along with whatever you want to do. The admin gave a good reason to wait on the archive, and you said no. And, I implemented the manual archive of a month-old discussion which you also reverted while implementing your chosen method of auto-archiving at six months (which is totally non-standard btw). In case you aren't seeing the pattern here, you claim to be interested in discussing things while ignoring the discussion and doing things your way. Further, best practice is not to override previous archives with reverts but to allow them to stand. In the former, a user was concerned about hiding important discussion and keeping them visible for reference, and you reverted and hid the discussion; while in the latter, I archived old talk and you expressed concern with hiding the discussion and you reverted. Are you starting to see a pattern here? It appears to be your way or the highway. Viriditas (talk) 00:18, 22 May 2013 (UTC)

I think this conversation is over. Either of these issues is best discussed on the relevant talk pages, so more people can weigh in. Cheers. --Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 00:20, 22 May 2013 (UTC)

You see, you just proved my point. You say, "let's discuss this on the talk page", but you don't discuss anything, you just revert and say, "case closed". That's the pattern here. You aren't open to any discussion and I really wish you would stop saying that. The next time you revert my changes, I'm going to escalate this issue. Viriditas (talk) 00:22, 22 May 2013 (UTC)

I don't recall you discussing this on any of the relevant talk pages. If you disagree with what was done at Robert Clark, there is a whole section devoted to the topic, and lots of watchers, so bring it there and see what consensus holds. I've already made my case there, and no-one has opposed, replied, or said anything. Silence = consent here, right? If you disagree with what was done at Talk:Sondra Peterson, bring it there, there are watchers, and see what holds. This it not me vs. you, and I am open to discussion - just my talk page, at this moment, is not the place for it, as there are more voices that should be heard. Best regards, --Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 00:25, 22 May 2013 (UTC)

And your rationale for keeping a month-old discussion on the talk page for six months, a discussion that shows Qworty going after Sondra Peterson, is what exactly? Meanwhile, you have archived an older discussion on Qworty's BLP showing that he had bragged about writing his own article. Something smells awful fishy here. Viriditas (talk) 00:33, 22 May 2013 (UTC)

Thanks!

— alf laylah wa laylah (talk) 00:19, 22 May 2013 (UTC)

I didn't know if you were editing, so figured I'd clean it up. I'm not an experienced spam fighter - I usually just revert, leave a warning or so, but I never follow up - is there something one should do? Someplace I should notify? cheers, --Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 00:21, 22 May 2013 (UTC)

Nah, the warning's enough unless it doesn't stop. No point taking the time to report this kind of nonsense. But thanks for taking care of it.— alf laylah wa laylah (talk) 00:28, 22 May 2013 (UTC)

Well, the fun never stops. Thanks for the assist. I feel like we're in one of those hokey buddy westerns. Can I play Owen Wilson? You can be Jackie Chan. --Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 00:40, 22 May 2013 (UTC)

Aww, I tried to report it (twinkle does that - cool!) - but someone had beat me to the punch, and the IP is already blocked. What efficient processes we have here... --Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 00:47, 22 May 2013 (UTC)

(edit conflict)Me too. Here's the note I was trying to leave you when I got hit with the ec:

Reported here by User:Racerx11. I was thinking more Lash LaRue and Randolph Scott. We'll flip for the white hat... ;)— alf laylah wa laylah (talk) 00:51, 22 May 2013 (UTC)

— alf laylah wa laylah (talk) 00:51, 22 May 2013 (UTC)

Swords?

Does this refer to me? If so, then you'll understand why there's a black banner on my page. More importantly though - is it really necessary to keep up the combative stance, particularly when I made it very clear that's what drives editors such as myself away? Don't bother answering, just thought I'd ask. Truthkeeper (talk) 16:52, 22 May 2013 (UTC)

No - it just has to do with the fact that Alf and I were getting along well, I sent them a beer, etc, and then we bumped into eachother on another article. Just a light-hearted joke is all, and nothing to do with you. Cheers. --Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 16:57, 22 May 2013 (UTC)

Navigation

Blergh. Removing the category does make some of these difficult to find, and it's certainly a central characteristic of many of them. But I',m not sure how one would handle the category if it allowed inclusion; how antisemitic (or homophobic, etc.) does one have to be to merit inclusion? –Roscelese (talk ⋅ contribs) 17:01, 22 May 2013 (UTC)

That's the problem. I wasn't part of those discussions, but would have voted the same way. Let the article discuss in detail their views, or create lists, but categories are just not the solution here. It's a bit easier on the other side, e.g. if someone has actively espoused a view and agrees with it, but many of these cats, like racism, anti-semitism, etc are negative labels as opposed to positive affirmations of an individual's POV.--Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 17:07, 22 May 2013 (UTC)

what you think?

what you think is not always going to be what carries the day. You have a very (opinion) high handed manner, at least in your talk page edits. I feel that a ADMIN warning IS an ADMIN action, so as such needs to remain on the page. it is not your roll to decide when a discussion is irrelevant or has gone on too far. This sort of unilateral editing is at the root of some of the problems that this particular article has been plagued by. That, and of course my carping. I have no plans to revert my edit. If you wish to end a discussion say so there and see what the others involved feel about it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Carptrash (talk • contribs) 22 May 2013‎

Two separate people asked you to desist that line of discussion, you haven't, I tried to BOLDLY close it off, you reverted... you will do what you like, I asked you to re-hat, you didn't want to. I don't want to argue this endlessly.--Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 21:05, 22 May 2013 (UTC)

Come on Obi, look on the bright side, this way should an admin say something I could not deny being warned. When an editor that I respect asks me to back off I typically will. I don't remember that happening. However I do respect the Killer so will cease and desist as requested. I have been told that I edit with my emotions. One of the major observations about men is that they are not in touch with any of their emotions except perhaps anger, and even that is as often as not very appropriately expressed. it's so confusing? Carptrash (talk) 21:37, 22 May 2013 (UTC)

Like I said, I don't want to argue this endlessly. I also feel like you just said you don't respect me in a round-about way - but whatever, you reverted, I'm not going to dispute it, lets let sleeping dogs lie. --Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 21:54, 22 May 2013 (UTC)

Category:African-American films now needs purging

The CFD for Category:African-American films has (finally) been closed by me. As discussed, the category needs "purging". Because you participated in the discussion, I am notifying you in case you would like to participate in purging the category. I am not expecting that you do this or suggesting that it is your job; my comment here is simply a notification so you are aware of the situation. Thanks. Good Ol’factory 02:57, 24 May 2013 (UTC)

Robert Clark Young's "Works"

I've commented on the talk page of "Robert Clark Young" about the exhaustive "Works" section that you've added. I don't wish to revert your edit myself (as I've decided not to touch that entry), but you might want to look at my remarks. NaymanNoland 23:32, 24 May 2013 (UTC)

thanks - trust me it's far from exhaustive, look in the history. I checked a number of other bios, even for lesser known authors, Misplaced Pages seems pretty open to having quite long lists. While I appreciate that you're staying away from editing it, you should nonetheless consider that your views on this may not be neutral. I personally believe that his bio and it's contents should have nothing to do with behavior of qworty. Otherwise, we've sunk to his level. As you can see the article is filling up with (sourced) drama, so that will remain his legacy here.--Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 00:04, 25 May 2013 (UTC)

No question that I ain't neutral. Not sure anyone here really is. Restricting my comments to his talk page means that if my non-neutrality gets disruptive, I can be carefully dismissed. That said, I also checked out some other author bios - see the talk page. (My lack of neutrality is a useful counterbalance, I think, to excessive generosity mistaking itself for neutrality. I'm erring on the dark side, to make sure that we don't err on the saintly. In between is appropriate.) NaymanNoland 00:14, 25 May 2013 (UTC)

Question about link to Qworty Cleanup

I'm probably just being dense, but the redirect from the various Qworty Cleanup threads in fact takes you to this confusing long list of things, none of them related to this issue. You then have to know to click on the "talk" tab, in order to get to the actual cleanup page, which where you want to be. Is that normal? Wouldn't it make more sense to simply redirect to the talk page itself? NaymanNoland (talk) 01:38, 26 May 2013 (UTC)

that long list of things is the list of all edits made by Qworty. The idea is, look at the edit, and if the edit itself was bad, then go to the article, fix it, and mark the edit bad. The talk page is to discuss the overall project. The redirect, in any case, is just a redirect from your userspace, I don't think many people will be using it. We could split "clean-up" into multiple parts, but they should all be on or linked from the "project" page, and the talk page should be used to discuss the project itself. Feel free to add more exposition at the top of the project page to explain and give context.--Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 01:42, 26 May 2013 (UTC)

Er, holy... That's a serious list. I thought it pertained to every single cleanup project on Misplaced Pages, but it's just QWORTY??? So much for the notion that we've "addressed everything". Yikes. NaymanNoland (talk) 01:56, 26 May 2013 (UTC)

we'll see. I just did a couple - almost all of his edits have already been addressed by other editors shortly after he did them. His technique was rather scorched-earth, but I have a bit of respect for it as it got results - there would be articles tagged for refs for 2 years, with nothing. Then Qworty swings by, ices the whole article, and two days later, it is restored, with more refs. So he compelled people into action. And frankly, while brutal, the edits I've seen so far are technically within guidance, especially around BLPs - unsourced information can be deleted on sight (but I think that provision was intended for removal of defaming information, but Qworty stretched that to apply to all information). So don't see that whole list as a list of terror - much of is it ogre or dragon-like rather. --Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 02:02, 26 May 2013 (UTC)

I must say that I've seen several articles where Qworty deleted whole bibliographies, properly constructed with ISBNs, publishers and publication dates as "unsourced". The same goes for discographies, filmographies, etc. I've also seen links deleted as "dead link" that weren't, proper sources deleted and the material that was cited deleted afterwords as "unsourced", and other incorrect editing. Also, in some cases a general tag at the top of a page dating back years that suggests the article could benefit from more inline citations was used as an excuse to delete huge chunks of the article, ALONG with proper citations that had been added during those years, with a comment like "three years is long enough to wait". Qworty did not bother to examine the content of other editors' work and sort out the solid editing from the questionable, or simple tag items that he felt needed a citation with "citation needed"; his purpose was not to improve articles, but to sabotage them. He also engaged in what he called "streamlining", which meant deleting all headings and making whatever he left of the article into a less readable block of text; sort of "anti-Wikifying". Rosencomet (talk) 16:46, 26 May 2013 (UTC)

That's also true, I've seen ones like that as well. I didn't see any deletion of discographies/bibliographies yet, but I have only done a few... he did use a rather large axe when doing this work...--Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 16:55, 26 May 2013 (UTC)

CFD now closed

This CFD has been closed. Splitting can proceed. I have added it to WP:CFDWM. Good Ol’factory 01:13, 27 May 2013 (UTC)

ERGS rules

Am I reading ERGS rules right in assuming that all people in Category:American Latter Day Saint hymnwriters should also be in Category:American hymnwriters or a non-religion specific sub-category thereof (which do not exist, there are no other sub-cats. I have to say that some of the arguments to keep this category really do seem to be "Latter-day Saint hymnwriters are not real hymnwriters, and we should not let them sit in the category for reald hymnwriters". Considering that William Clayton's "Come Come Ye Saints" is used in non-LDS worship, it is really off putting that people claim that Latter-day Saint written hymns are not used outside of Latter-day Saint worship.John Pack Lambert (talk) 21:51, 28 May 2013 (UTC)

Yeah, I'd read it that way too - some of the religion cats are trickier IMHO, but that one is simply "hymn writer" who is "Latter day saint", as such it should probably not be diffusing. --Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 21:53, 28 May 2013 (UTC)

Request for your help to edit

Hi Obiwankenobi: I saw your as a member of the Project Qworty effort.

I would like to invite you to come to the Erica Andrews article to give your thoughts and wisdom to what has gone on. I was one of the main editors of the article. I researched a lot about Andrews' life and career and placed most of the information on the page. One day in comes Qworty, Little Green Rosetta and Coffeepusher. To cut a long story short, it became very ugly between me and them as Qworty, LGR were deleting information out of the article. They would claim there citation source was weak and even when I would prove to them that the information was factual through sources, it was never enough. The article became a hot battleground for them and me. It got ugly. Very ugly. I stepped away for a while as I really have no desire to fight on Misplaced Pages with anyone. Then I was very surprised to see Qworty being exposed for what he did and got banned. Shortly after that LGR got banned. So as part of Project Qworty, I returned to the Andrews article and replaced the information that they had deleted. However, now I'm running into yet the same arguments with Coffeepusher and Howicus. So I would really like to invite you to review my edits and what they've reverted back to. My edits: http://en.wikipedia.org/search/?title=Erica_Andrews&oldid=557673661.

The Andrews talk page contains my comments on my replacement of content per Project Qworty. They have claimed the content I have placed back is contentious. I have asked just what part of actual career achievements is contentious? Andrews really did win her titles, really did act in 2 movies, really did perform on stage, really did appear in music videos, and really did host shows and performed. Nothing I have placed there is malicious lies. I have not made up anything. I will agree that sometimes the source is not from a mainstream outlet like NY Times, Washington Post but it does not mean the information is erroneous or is contentious or are lies to libel Andrews. I would NEVER do that to anyone living or dead. The information has weight and carries value for a reader who is seeking to learn more about Andrews in her bio. I hope you can chime in and make some sense. Thank you for your help. Lightspeedx (talk) 01:17, 1 June 2013 (UTC)