Crap articles

[Johnny Au]

This one is still bad, even after approximately one year since I brought it up: Alcohol advertising on college campuses (T-H-L)

It still reads like a freshman's essay.

[Poetlister]

This one is still bad, even after approximately one year since I brought it up: Alcohol advertising on college campuses (T-H-L)

It still reads like a freshman's essay.

Maybe it was a freshman's essay. That's far from unknown on Wikipedia.

[thekohser]

This one is still bad, even after approximately one year since I brought it up: Alcohol advertising on college campuses (T-H-L)

It still reads like a freshman's essay.

Maybe it was a freshman's essay. That's far from unknown on Wikipedia.

It truly is very poorly written. Example: "Any type of big and popular events on college campuses from Spring Concerts to Comedian acts to various shows and performances like Day Glow, the world's large paint party with music, there will be alcohol consumption among college students."

Someone should just be bold and stub the thing down to a sentence or two, and then let the whiners re-write it if they feel so passionate about the content.

[Berberis]

This one is still bad, even after approximately one year since I brought it up: Alcohol advertising on college campuses (T-H-L)

It still reads like a freshman's essay.

Maybe it was a freshman's essay. That's far from unknown on Wikipedia.

It was created for a course project. But junior level, not freshman.

[Johnny Au]

This one is still bad, even after approximately one year since I brought it up: Alcohol advertising on college campuses (T-H-L)

It still reads like a freshman's essay.

Maybe it was a freshman's essay. That's far from unknown on Wikipedia.

It was created for a course project. But junior level, not freshman.

I expected much better for junior, because it looks much more like one written by a freshman. The essay looks too elementary for sophomore even.

[greyed.out.fields]

[quote="]This one is still bad, even after approximately one year since I brought it up: Alcohol advertising on college campuses (T-H-L)

It still reads like a freshman's essay.

Maybe it was a freshman's essay. That's far from unknown on Wikipedia.

It was created for a course project. But junior level, not freshman.

I expected much better for junior, because it looks much more like one written by a freshman. The essay looks too elementary for sophomore even.[/quote][/quote][/quote][/quote][/quote][/quote][/quote][/quote][/quote][/quote]

Umm: I sort of understand what the terms mean here, I think. Correct me if I am wrong. Which I think I am.

In the US and A, you do a four-year college degree, with the years informally called freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior.
Then if you did well in "pre-med" or "pre-law" or so on, you go on to take a Masters level degree at another college, yes?

@Johnny Au - is that the way it works in Germany Lite?

[thekohser]

In the US and A, you do a four-year college degree, with the years informally called freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior.

Correct.

Then if you did well in "pre-med" or "pre-law" or so on, you go on to take a Masters level degree at another college, yes?

Somewhat correct. You don't need to declare "pre-med" or "pre-law" in order to go on to a Masters or PhD or MD or JD program at another (or the same) university. You just need to meet the requirements of admission into those programs, which will typically require the Bachelors Degree and a threshold score on a standardized test.

[Berberis]

r.
Then if you did well in "pre-med" or "pre-law" or so on, you go on to take a Masters level degree at another college, yes?

You have to pick a subject as a major, but pre-med and pre-law aren't majors. Admission to medical schools requires you to have taken a lot of biology and some chemistry, so people who plan to apply to medical school often major in biology. It's possible to fulfill the pre-med curriculum while pursuing another major; biology is just the easiest route to go. Similarly, political science is the default major for pre-law.

[thekohser]

It's possible to fulfill the pre-med curriculum while pursuing another major...

My Residence Advisor at my college was a History major who was accepted into Harvard Medical School, where he successfully completed the program and became an ophthalmologist. One of my two best friends in college did about the same thing -- majored in History while completing the "pre-med curriculum" -- and he's now an associate professor of pediatrics. So, it's definitely "possible".

[Hex]

Entropy (computing) (T-H-L) is unmitigated shit. This brief discussion on StackExchange is immensely more useful as a starting point for someone new to the topic and simultaneously completely uninterested in operating system trivia.

[Kingsindian]

You want Entropy_(information_theory) (T-H-L) which is the subject being discussed in the Stack Exchange link.

[Hex]

(a) That article isn't linked in the computing article until the see also section, after kilobytes of crap.

(b)

entropy.png

[Kingsindian]

No argument there. They should at least have had a disambiguation hatnote. It wouldn't be much of a loss if the entire article were deleted; as your Google search indicates, it might even do some good.

[Botto]

I swear, about once every year, someone tries to turn articles related to the Alien franchise into shit. In all likelihood it's a single editor using a school computer who comes in and rather than simply changing the information to be inaccurate about Prometheus and Alien: Covenant not being direct prequels, they'll also insert and extra line about "That's not true. They're not real prequels. It was hinted that they weren't... half a decade ago".

I have to keep an eye on these pages, as this shit sneakily pops up once a year.

It drives me up the wall, especially after all the work I've done on these articles.

[thekohser]

It drives me up the wall, especially after all the work I've done on these articles.

Thing is, Wikipedia is designed to do that, so why do you continue to "work" on it... for FREE, no less?

[Kingsindian]

I have a wild idea, following the simple model I proposed in the MMORPG thread. Since Wikipedia pages are like land, there should be a land value tax (T-H-L) (which is recognized to be one of the least distortionary and most progressive of all taxes). The revenue should somehow be spent in rewards for keeping the page tidy.

[AndyTheGrump]

I have a wild idea, following the simple model I proposed in the MMORPG thread. Since Wikipedia pages are like land, there should be a land value tax (T-H-L) (which is recognized to be one of the least distortionary and most progressive of all taxes). The revenue should somehow be spent in rewards for keeping the page tidy.

How exactly are Wikipedia pages 'like land'?

[Kingsindian]

Sorry, I should have linked to the thread. It's just a metaphor I found useful in thinking about the topic.

[Botto]

It drives me up the wall, especially after all the work I've done on these articles.

Thing is, Wikipedia is designed to do that, so why do you continue to "work" on it... for FREE, no less?

I suppose I simply dislike false information being ignorantly shoveled forward.

[Johnny Au]

This wouldn't happen if every article in the English Wikipedia were under at least pending changes, just like the German Wikipedia.

[Poetlister]

This wouldn't happen if every article in the English Wikipedia were under at least pending changes, just like the German Wikipedia.

Not to mention the English Wikibooks. Both, I find, have far better working environments than English Wikipedia.

[Textnyymi]

I suppose I simply dislike false information being ignorantly shoveled forward.

Think about Everything2 and Everipedia: you could do the same stuff you're doing at Wikipedia, with the added benefit that people generally don't dive in and muck around stuff right on!

[Amglish]

List of cities in Ghana (T-H-L)
The list of cities isn't sorted properly. For example, by all metrics, Sekondi-Takoradi actually has a larger population than Tamale, unlike what is listed in that article.

And Secondi-Takoradi does have a better night life---e.g., Atlantic hotel?

[Hex]

I cooked some parsnips today as part of a meal and had the thought "parsnip, what a weird name. I wonder what the derivation is." So I looked it up. Obviously, Parsnip (T-H-L) was the first search result.

Under Taxonomy, we have the following:

The etymology of the generic name Pastinaca is not known with certainty, but is probably derived from either the Latin word pastino, meaning "to prepare the ground for planting of the vine" or pastus, meaning "food"...[13]

The citation is a good one. However, later on there's an Etymology section, which says:

While folk etymology sometimes assumes the name is a portmanteau of parsley (T-H-L) and turnip (T-H-L), it actually comes from Middle English pasnepe, alteration (influenced by nep, turnip) of Old French pasnaie (now panais) from Latin pastinum, a kind of fork. The word's ending was changed to -nip by analogy with turnip because it was mistakenly assumed to be a kind of turnip.[24]

Note that the comment about folk etymology is unsourced. Google Books doesn't show you the excerpt for that citation, but you can see it here. The book is "Journal of Horticulture and Practical Gardening, Volume 8", published in 1884 - unlike the citation above, which is from 2006. What it said:

The Parsnip (Pastinaca sativa) may have taken its Latin name from the circumstance that the root in its shape resemble a kind of digger named "pastinum", as some assert, but this explanation is not highly satisfactory. Nor is it certain that "Parsnip" is only a perversion of the Latin word, yet it may be so, unless the "nip" or "netp" bears an allusion to another group, perhaps once supposed to be akin to the Parsnip.

We can immediately see a number of problems with this. Firstly, Middle English is not mentioned. Secondly, the source actively casts doubt on the claim it is being used to support. Thirdly, it was written decades before the advent of modern scholarship. In other words, it's trash.

A moment's searching reveals that the text is both accurate and plagiarized:

Middle English pasnepe, alteration (influenced by nep, turnip) of Old French pasnaie, from Latin pastināca, from pastinum, a kind of two-pronged dibble.

If we look into the history, we can see that the "etymology" paragraph was added in 2008. The citation for the second part didn't come until four years later. Interestingly, Google Books has a helpful habit of preserving the search query in URLs, and if we look at that citation, we can see that the URL says: q=%22roman%20empire%22%20parsnips - what Gobonobo (T-C-L) was searching for was "roman empire" turnips.

A year later, the article was put up for "good article" status by none other than our old pal, Cwmhiraeth (T-C-L). The invitation was taken up by renowned sockpuppeteer, fantasist, convicted violent criminal, and all-around shitsack ColonelHenry (T-C-L). It failed, not least due to concerns raised by friend of Wikipediocracy AfadsBad (T-C-L).

As I have been told to fuck off from commenting during the review, I will just dispute the content, in the article, where I find problems. --(AfadsBad (talk) 14:18, 26 September 2013 (UTC))

However, that didn't stop Cwmhiraeth from trying again in 2015. This time, Hawkeye7 (T-C-L) conducted the review, and found it worthy. This review didn't take the time to check the citations in detail, revealing a contradictory citation to a painfully out of date text; nor did it identify and flag an unsourced statement and a copyright infringement that had at that point been sitting in the article for 7 years. Thank fuck nobody pays "Hawkeye7" to do this sort of work in real life. Or maybe they do; apparently he has a PhD in military history. But not, evidently, taxonomy or linguistics.

And by the way, the talk page notes:

Parsnip has been listed as a level-4 vital article in Science. If you can improve it, please do.

[Amglish]

Thank fuck nobody pays "Hawkeye7" to do this sort of work in real life. Or maybe they do; apparently he has a PhD in military history. But not, evidently, taxonomy or linguistics.

Does not the "PhD military history" tell you all you need to know?

[Poetlister]

I suppose I simply dislike false information being ignorantly shoveled forward.

Think about Everything2 and Everipedia: you could do the same stuff you're doing at Wikipedia, with the added benefit that people generally don't dive in and muck around stuff right on!

True, but nobody would ever see it because those sites have very little Google juice. You'd be better off doing it on Wikibooks, where there might be some mucking around but usually very little.

[Hex]

File 13 (T-H-L) ought to be put in its own subject.

[GlwnDwr]

Sedation (T-H-L) does not mention any drug free techniques such as Hypnosurgery (T-H-L).

[Kingsindian]

George_H._W._Bush_vomiting_incident (T-H-L)

It is the only documented occurrence to date of a U.S. President vomiting on a foreign dignitary.

This quote is sourced to a totally-legitimate-looking-site.

[Poetlister]

George_H._W._Bush_vomiting_incident (T-H-L)

It is the only documented occurrence to date of a U.S. President vomiting on a foreign dignitary.

This quote is sourced to a totally-legitimate-looking-site.

If it's true, there should be little difficulty in finding a better source.

[AndyTheGrump]

George_H._W._Bush_vomiting_incident (T-H-L)

It is the only documented occurrence to date of a U.S. President vomiting on a foreign dignitary.

This quote is sourced to a totally-legitimate-looking-site.

If it's true, there should be little difficulty in finding a better source.

Frankly, I doubt that any credible source would make such a statement, given the difficulty of fact-checking it...

[Poetlister]

Union of Concerned Scientists (T-H-L): This article is a bit of a whitewash given that this organisation has attracted quite a lot of adverse comments. My particular concern is the claim that it has "Membership over 200,000". I was asked how many members it had. Its website claims "over 500,000 supporters", not the same thing. After a lot of burrowing, I found that they claimed about 100,000 members. One wonders why they try to hide that and flaunt a "supporters" figure, but the point is that the article is clearly wrong.

[Kingsindian]

I don't know where else to put this, but apparently someone thought it would be a good idea make a redirect: "Lesbian prime minister (T-H-L)" to Jóhanna_Sigurðardóttir (T-H-L). The reasoning is:

(cur | prev) 21:26, 1 February 2009‎ Candlewicke (talk | contribs)‎ . . (39 bytes) (+39)‎ . . (This is not meant to be offensive, I simply cannot remember her name and I suspect others may be in the same position...) (thank)

[Poetlister]

I don't know where else to put this, but apparently someone thought it would be a good idea make a redirect: "Lesbian prime minister (T-H-L)" to Jóhanna_Sigurðardóttir (T-H-L). The reasoning is:

(cur | prev) 21:26, 1 February 2009‎ Candlewicke (talk | contribs)‎ . . (39 bytes) (+39)‎ . . (This is not meant to be offensive, I simply cannot remember her name and I suspect others may be in the same position...) (thank)

Presumably, if anyone can identify other Lesbian prime ministers this will have to become a disambiguation page. But the potential for other redirects is enormous, e.g. Assassinated British Prime Minister to Spencer Perceval (T-H-L) or Centenarian Double Oscar Winning Actress to Luise Rainer (T-H-L).

[trout]

Polish Plumber (T-H-L) seems to be a crap article. The last paragraph is like this:

The "Polish plumber" cliché may symbolise the fear of cheap Central and East European labour threatening the jobs of West Europeans.[3] On the other hand, some British media changed track and sounded a more positive note, praising affordability and reliability of immigrants' work. Statistics for 2003–2007 estimated that two million East and Central European immigrants arrived in the UK and that half of them were Polish. Polish immigration also meant new business in some areas, shops introduced bilingual English-Polish signs, bookstores established "Polish language" sections, some Police forces looked to recruit Polish speaking staff.[3] Nonetheless, the stereotype was cited as a factor in the referendum that led to the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union.[4][5][6][7][8]

[Botto]

Lists of American Baby Boomers (T-H-L)
I'm beginning to wonder if there should be a WikiProject Prisencolin, just to stop fancruft articles like this to pop up.

[Johnny Au]

Lists of American Baby Boomers (T-H-L)
I'm beginning to wonder if there should be a WikiProject Prisencolin, just to stop fancruft articles like this to pop up.

That list is too unwieldy. There's too many notable Americans born between 1945 and 1965.

This article is being discussed for deletion: List of most discussed YouTube videos (T-H-L)

[Poetlister]

Lists of American Baby Boomers (T-H-L)
I'm beginning to wonder if there should be a WikiProject Prisencolin, just to stop fancruft articles like this to pop up.

That list is too unwieldy. There's too many notable Americans born between 1945 and 1965.

It's the sort of thing that is best left as a category, if indeed it's necessary. Baby boomers are probably too diffuse a group to be worth analysing as a whole.

[Ming]

Lists of American Baby Boomers (T-H-L)
I'm beginning to wonder if there should be a WikiProject Prisencolin, just to stop fancruft articles like this to pop up.

Their talk page is quite a study.

[thekohser]

It's the sort of thing that is best left as a category, if indeed it's necessary.

In my opinion, it would have been even better left as a job for Semantic Mediawiki, but Jimmy Wales put his thumb down on that and squished it, because he found it too complicated to edit within (which is a fair complaint, to be honest).

[Carcharoth]

It's the sort of thing that is best left as a category, if indeed it's necessary.

In my opinion, it would have been even better left as a job for Semantic Mediawiki, but Jimmy Wales put his thumb down on that and squished it, because he found it too complicated to edit within (which is a fair complaint, to be honest).

Remind me again, did/does Semantic Mediawiki have the same aims as Wikidata? (and are there old discussions here about Semantic Mediawiki? I did find this.)

[thekohser]

In my opinion, it would have been even better left as a job for Semantic Mediawiki, but Jimmy Wales put his thumb down on that and squished it, because he found it too complicated to edit within (which is a fair complaint, to be honest).

Remind me again, did/does Semantic Mediawiki have the same aims as Wikidata? (and are there old discussions here about Semantic Mediawiki? I did find this.)

They both are based on the utility of a property (like population or birth date) being assigned a value, with Wikidata also demanding a source, but Wikidata not being instantly queryable on Wikipedia directly. This page probably helps, but it's in need of some editorial attention. Denny Vrandečić's involvement in both projects is a strong indicator of how much they overlap. I don't pretend to be an expert in this, beyond the fact that I tried to promote the benefits of MyWikiBiz.com being a Semantic Mediawiki system. It was working out great, back in 2008.
I'm sure there is some other Wikipedia criticism site out there that will now use this post as an opportunity to show (once again!) how I am just in it for the money, but I hope that you'll interpret my post primarily as trying to be helpful and informative, which gives me great joy as a person.

[Ming]

Entertainment events at Perth Arena (T-H-L) is part of a burgeoning Australian set of articles of every concert/whatever at each individual site.

[Botto]

Entertainment events at Perth Arena (T-H-L) is part of a burgeoning Australian set of articles of every concert/whatever at each individual site.

Wikipedia is quickly becoming a Buzzfeed repository.

[Poetlister]

Public school (United Kingdom) (T-H-L): You'd never guess from this article that over 20 years ago the public schools decided that the term was very confusing, especially to Americans, and they now call themselves "independent schools" instead.

[AndyTheGrump]

Public school (United Kingdom) (T-H-L): You'd never guess from this article that over 20 years ago the public schools decided that the term was very confusing, especially to Americans, and they now call themselves "independent schools" instead.

Wouldn't guessing be rather pointless, given the note at the top of the page:

This article is about a number of exclusive older fee-paying schools in England and Wales for children over the age of 11 or 13. For other fee-charging schools in the United Kingdom, see Independent school (United Kingdom)...

As for which terminology is appropriate, and whether Wikipedia should have two articles on essentially the same subject, I'll not offer an opinion (beyond my usual one that few things would improve the British educational system more than a few strategically-placed sticks of dynamite in such institutions. The pupils would of course be removed to a safe distance, to witness this act of kindness).

[Poetlister]

The point is that as far as the schools themselves are concerned, the term "public school" is obsolete. This is nowhere mentioned in the article although I would regard it as quite crucial.

[Botto]

Lists of American Baby Boomers (T-H-L)
I'm beginning to wonder if there should be a WikiProject Prisencolin, just to stop fancruft articles like this to pop up.

Their talk page is quite a study.

I'm honestly amazed by how defiant they are. Whenever an article they've created gets deleted, they literally every time immediate recreate them as a redirect or disambiguation page to something else. I mean, is that kind of behavior AN-worthy?

[Poetlister]

That article links to List of American writers of the Baby boomer generation (T-H-L), which in turn links to

* Literature in the 1970s
* Literature in the 1980s
* Literature in the 1990s
* Literature in the 2000s

Surprisingly, the last three are redlinks. You'd think someone would have created them by now.

[Carcharoth]

That article links to List of American writers of the Baby boomer generation (T-H-L), which in turn links to

* Literature in the 1970s
* Literature in the 1980s
* Literature in the 1990s
* Literature in the 2000s

Surprisingly, the last three are redlinks. You'd think someone would have created them by now.

Clearly, the rise of the internet saw the death of literature (and culture in general).