Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Paradoctor (talk | contribs) at 20:58, 1 May 2009 (→Separate page for discussion of Twin scenario itself: reply to Martin). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Separate page for discussion of Twin scenario itself

I have set up a separate page. Please post your reply there, as this is really the place for discussions on how to improve the article. Martin Hogbin (talk) 10:04, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

Quote from the boilerplate on top of this page: "This is not a forum for general discussion about the article's subject.", and "This" means all of Misplaced Pages. Please self-delete the page, or at least move it to your user space. The latter would be against Misplaced Pages policy, too, but my interest is limited to keeping the talk page on topic. Paradoctor (talk) 00:08, 1 May 2009 (UTC)

On what basis do you claim that 'this' refers to all of Misplaced Pages.Martin Hogbin (talk) 16:52, 1 May 2009 (UTC)

What Misplaced Pages is not: "Wikipedians have their own user pages, but they may be used only to present information relevant to working on the encyclopedia." (my emphasis)

Talk page guidelines: "Talk pages are for discussing the article, not for general conversation about the article's subject (much less other subjects). Keep discussions on the topic of how to improve the associated article. Irrelevant discussions are subject to removal." Paradoctor (talk) 20:58, 1 May 2009 (UTC)

I set up a separate page to keep the discussion of the twins paradox itself off the article talk page, something I am sure that you will agree with.Martin Hogbin (talk) 16:52, 1 May 2009 (UTC)

?!? I explicitly asked you to delete or move that page, what on Earth gives you the idea that this constitutes agreement, rather than the exact opposite? And moving to a subpage is not moving it off the talk page, it is just a reorganization of the talk page. Paradoctor (talk) 20:58, 1 May 2009 (UTC)

If my page were removed there would be little either of us could do to prevent off-topic discussions from taking place on the talk page.Martin Hogbin (talk) 16:52, 1 May 2009 (UTC)

So you propose to keep off-topic matter off the talk page by putting your own off-topic discussions there?Martin Hogbin (talk) 16:52, 1 May 2009 (UTC) Paradoctor (talk) 20:58, 1 May 2009 (UTC)

There is also the matter of exactly where a subject becomes off-topic. Martin Hogbin (talk) 16:52, 1 May 2009 (UTC)

In your own words: "Please post your reply there, as this is really the place for discussions on how to improve the article.". Paradoctor (talk) 20:58, 1 May 2009 (UTC)

What about someone who wants to change the article because they believe that it is incorrect? Where do they state their case?Martin Hogbin (talk) 16:52, 1 May 2009 (UTC)

Here of course. But, the subpage contains almost no references to the article, as per your design! For the few spots that do, and in the spirit of pragmatism that's an integral part of the Misplaced Pages community, I have offered you the option of moving the off-topic discussion to your user space. You may think it's no biggie, but we disagree on that. This talk page has already accumulated a dozen archive pages, totalling more than a megabyte of text, and much of it irrelevant to work on the article. Now imagine someone comes along, trying to find out if a particular question has been addressed before. You see the problem? Now imagine how much fun it will be for me to reorganize this huge mess into a usable toolbox for the main article.

Please do not take my request as a judgment on the discussions, I am simply trying to keep a sane working environment. If you want a less "restrictive" environment to debate in, why not make your own wiki? You can have your cake and eat it! ;) Paradoctor (talk) 20:58, 1 May 2009 (UTC)