Wikipediocracy

Vocal wrote:That is the worst article title I have ever seen.

Come on now, this is Wikipedia we are talking about. Surely you have seen worse.

The Devil's Advocate wrote:

Vocal wrote:That is the worst article title I have ever seen.

Come on now, this is Wikipedia we are talking about. Surely you have seen worse.

Not really.

I mean, I could go actively looking for titles that are even more of a mess...

The Devil's Advocate wrote:

Vocal wrote:That is the worst article title I have ever seen.

Come on now, this is Wikipedia we are talking about. Surely you have seen worse.

Okay, how about Animal conspiracy theories involving Israel?

EricBarbour wrote:

The Devil's Advocate wrote:

Vocal wrote:That is the worst article title I have ever seen.

Come on now, this is Wikipedia we are talking about. Surely you have seen worse.

Okay, how about Animal conspiracy theories involving Israel?

Or, as it's now called, Zoological conspiracy theories (Arab-Israeli conflict) (T-H-L). What a hash.

Sweet Revenge wrote:

EricBarbour wrote:

The Devil's Advocate wrote:

Vocal wrote:That is the worst article title I have ever seen.

Come on now, this is Wikipedia we are talking about. Surely you have seen worse.

Okay, how about Animal conspiracy theories involving Israel?

Or, as it's now called, Zoological conspiracy theories (Arab-Israeli conflict) (T-H-L). What a hash.

You're right, that is worse. I stand corrected.

Vocal wrote:

Sweet Revenge wrote:

EricBarbour wrote:

The Devil's Advocate wrote:

Vocal wrote:That is the worst article title I have ever seen.

Come on now, this is Wikipedia we are talking about. Surely you have seen worse.

Okay, how about Animal conspiracy theories involving Israel?

Or, as it's now called, Zoological conspiracy theories (Arab-Israeli conflict) (T-H-L). What a hash.

You're right, that is worse. I stand corrected.

Once again, my Blog Post Sense is tingling.

Hersch wrote:

Vocal wrote:

Sweet Revenge wrote:

EricBarbour wrote:

The Devil's Advocate wrote:

Vocal wrote:That is the worst article title I have ever seen.

Come on now, this is Wikipedia we are talking about. Surely you have seen worse.

Okay, how about Animal conspiracy theories involving Israel?

Or, as it's now called, Zoological conspiracy theories (Arab-Israeli conflict) (T-H-L). What a hash.

You're right, that is worse. I stand corrected.

Once again, my Blog Post Sense is tingling.

"Top 10 Worst Wikipedia Article Titles"?

Vocal wrote:"Top 10 Worst Wikipedia Article Titles"?

+1

I am prepared to write a blog article about this myself. Question: what happened to the original post? What was that Chick-fil-a "free speech" article title again?

Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Chick ... ontroversy

Thanks. I am now working up a blog article -- any other suggestions? I am not looking for just weird 'n' zany titles -- I am looking for the titles that betray the existence of vicious POV warring over non-encyclopedic current-events propaganda control issues.

List of video games notable for negative reception (T-H-L)

Controversy over linguistic and ethnic identity in Moldova (T-H-L)

Disputed status of the isthmus between Gibraltar and Spain (T-H-L)

Places that have decriminalized non-medical cannabis in the United States (T-H-L)

Overtures by Hector Berlioz (T-H-L) (Berlioz is the only composer who gets a special overtures article?)

Problems in coal mining (T-H-L) "Coal mining cannot be done everywhere with coal, due to certain geological restrictions."

Closings and cancellations following the September 11 attacks (T-H-L)

North American video game crash of 1983 (T-H-L)

History of discovery and distribution of the remains of Aegean civilization (T-H-L)

List of Angels in Neon Genesis Evangelion (T-H-L)

Network Service Providers in Nepal (T-H-L) "There are few Network Service Providers (NSPs) in Nepal." (And apparently, none of them are notable enough for their own Wikipedia article, but collectively, they are a force to be reckoned with, known to the world as... <booming narrator voice from classic television superhero programs> "Network Service Providers in Nepaaaaaallll!")

List of U.S. communities with Asian American majority populations (T-H-L) The comedy factor in this one is not so much in the title, but in the fact that "Millbourne", Pennsylvania is included in the list. Millbourne is a speck of land (0.1 square mile) with fewer than 1,200 people, but it's listed in the Asian American list under a sub-heading "Places with fewer than 25,000 people".

Urinal deodorizer block (T-H-L) This term appears zero times in Google News archives, and in zero Google Books (that are not scraped from Wikipedia).

Loose wheel nut indicator (T-H-L)

Gathering this list took me approximately 20 minutes.

Colonies of Poland (T-H-L)

The very first sentence in the article is - wait for it - "Poland never formally had any colonial territories."

Vocal wrote:Colonies of Poland (T-H-L)

The very first sentence in the article is - wait for it - "Poland never formally had any colonial territories."

That absolutely trumps all of mine. Well done.

Vocal wrote:Colonies of Poland (T-H-L)

The very first sentence in the article is - wait for it - "Poland never formally had any colonial territories."

I suspect there are probably some ethnic LIthuanians and ethnic Germans who would beg to differ.


RfB

I'd say the "List of video games notable for negative reception" article Kohs provided is a definite keeper for the post.

Edit:
I herby submit to the running, September 11 intelligence prior to the attacks (T-H-L).

Out of curiosity, what does this thread actually have to do with Wikimedia governance?

Years ago, there was an article titled "Transport in Africa". The entire text of the article, aside from assorted infoboxes, was "There is transport in Africa". It was deleted in 2007 (twice), after I complained (probably on IRC) that it was stupid. This non-article remains linked from the "Transport in <X>" articles for most or all African countries, as well as other places, and appears on the "list of missing Africa topics" project management page.

There are also a number of pages titled something like "<X> Delegation to the <Y> Olympic Games" where the text says "<X> did not participate in the <Y> Olympic games", or in some cases "<X> sent a delegation to the <Y> Olympic Games" with no further information. (I may be misremembering the exact titles, but you get the point.)

Vocal wrote:Out of curiosity, what does this thread actually have to do with Wikimedia governance?

Multi-million dollar, tax-exempt non-profit charities shouldn't condone silly things.

Thumbing through my past contributions I stumbled on this gem as well: Politicization of science (T-H-L). Basically, it's a left-wing attack page focusing mostly on the Bush Administration.

I just noticed the rather hilariously POINTy edit summary used when creating the article: "This is why you can't get funding for anti-GW research." Blatant POV-page stemming from the Wikipedia Climate Change imbroglio that was then hijacked by the other side for the opposite POV.

thekohser wrote:Problems in coal mining (T-H-L) "Coal mining cannot be done everywhere with coal, due to certain geological restrictions."

[/uote]If there's no bloody coal that's a geological restriction!
Urinal deodorizer block (T-H-L) This term appears zero times in Google News archives, and in zero Google Books (that are not scraped from Wikipedia).[/quote]
That's very notable by any sane definition. Haven't you ever been in a public toilet? (Oh, this is bloody Wikipedia. Sanity excluded.)

Retrospect wrote:That's very notable by any sane definition. Haven't you ever been in a public toilet? (Oh, this is bloody Wikipedia. Sanity excluded.)

I didn't say it wasn't notable. I'm saying that it's rather likely that nobody on earth, prior to Wikipedia, had ever called it a "urinal deodorizer block" in any reliable sources.

Articles for deletion/List of really really stupid article ideas that you should not create -- also subjected to two MFDs.

Towel Day

Penn State Nittany Lions football under Joe Paterno (as an Independent)

And just btw: wanna see an obscenely long article, about an obscure and trivial subject, written by a single nut?
Character mask (T-H-L)

EricBarbour wrote:And just btw: wanna see an obscenely long article, about an obscure and trivial subject, written by a single nut?
Character mask (T-H-L)

I read through the intro. I gave up after that because it was pretty clear that I wasn't gonna actually find out anything about the subject.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the original version of the article, while still ridiculously long, actually contained a basic overview of the concept.

Is there a way of using the "history" feature of the Wiki software, or any other feature for that matter, that allows you to track the name changes in a article? Looking at the original talk page, I infer that "Allegations of Israeli Apartheid" was originally "Israeli Apartheid." It is now "Israel and the Apartheid Analogy." Has it had other names in its long history?

Hersch wrote:Is there a way of using the "history" feature of the Wiki software, or any other feature for that matter, that allows you to track the name changes in a article? Looking at the original talk page, I infer that "Allegations of Israeli Apartheid" was originally "Israeli Apartheid." It is now "Israel and the Apartheid Analogy." Has it had other names in its long history?

None that I can find. All you can do is try to search thru AN/I, AFDs, MFDs, etc. etc. by dates. It's usually difficult, sometimes impossible.

EricBarbour wrote:

Hersch wrote:Is there a way of using the "history" feature of the Wiki software, or any other feature for that matter, that allows you to track the name changes in a article? Looking at the original talk page, I infer that "Allegations of Israeli Apartheid" was originally "Israeli Apartheid." It is now "Israel and the Apartheid Analogy." Has it had other names in its long history?

None that I can find. All you can do is try to search thru AN/I, AFDs, MFDs, etc. etc. by dates. It's usually difficult, sometimes impossible.

The move log here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Log/move has a search box or two at the top, but I can't make it do anything at all, even for stuff I know is in there, even on the current page. You probably all know all about this.

Sweet Revenge wrote:

EricBarbour wrote:

Hersch wrote:Is there a way of using the "history" feature of the Wiki software, or any other feature for that matter, that allows you to track the name changes in a article? Looking at the original talk page, I infer that "Allegations of Israeli Apartheid" was originally "Israeli Apartheid." It is now "Israel and the Apartheid Analogy." Has it had other names in its long history?

None that I can find. All you can do is try to search thru AN/I, AFDs, MFDs, etc. etc. by dates. It's usually difficult, sometimes impossible.

The move log here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Log/move has a search box or two at the top, but I can't make it do anything at all, even for stuff I know is in there, even on the current page. You probably all know all about this.

I dunno. Used it to find this:
14:35, November 1, 2005 Moriori (talk | contribs) moved page Main Page to Hauturu/Little Barrier Island (to utilise official naming) (revert)

Zoloft wrote: I dunno. Used it to find this:
14:35, November 1, 2005 Moriori (talk | contribs) moved page Main Page to Hauturu/Little Barrier Island (to utilise official naming) (revert)

I see, I'm an idiot. It wants the exact page title and I was thinking it worked like keyword search. But it only works from old titles, so you can't use it to find old article names.

Sweet Revenge wrote:

Zoloft wrote: I dunno. Used it to find this:
14:35, November 1, 2005 Moriori (talk | contribs) moved page Main Page to Hauturu/Little Barrier Island (to utilise official naming) (revert)

I see, I'm an idiot. It wants the exact page title and I was thinking it worked like keyword search. But it only works from old titles, so you can't use it to find old article names.

Once you find a few bits of info then use other fields like user and date.

Zoloft wrote:I dunno. Used it to find this:
14:35, November 1, 2005 Moriori (talk | contribs) moved page Main Page to Hauturu/Little Barrier Island (to utilise official naming) (revert)

And I used it to find this. Comedy gold.

Hersch wrote:Is there a way of using the "history" feature of the Wiki software, or any other feature for that matter, that allows you to track the name changes in a article? Looking at the original talk page, I infer that "Allegations of Israeli Apartheid" was originally "Israeli Apartheid." It is now "Israel and the Apartheid Analogy." Has it had other names in its long history?

If you click on view history, there will be a link at the top of that page saying "view logs for this page" and on that page there is a drop-down menu allowing you to look at just the move log for the article. However, that only tells you how many times that specific page has been renamed. You would have to check the move history of the other names to get the full picture, and if there were any deletions along the way then you won't see that part of the history.

thekohser wrote:

Zoloft wrote:I dunno. Used it to find this:
14:35, November 1, 2005 Moriori (talk | contribs) moved page Main Page to Hauturu/Little Barrier Island (to utilise official naming) (revert)

And I used it to find this. Comedy gold.

Yes, it does work, provided you enter a date, and spell the original article name in a flawless and case-sensitive way.

Hersch wrote:

thekohser wrote:

Zoloft wrote:I dunno. Used it to find this:
14:35, November 1, 2005 Moriori (talk | contribs) moved page Main Page to Hauturu/Little Barrier Island (to utilise official naming) (revert)

And I used it to find this. Comedy gold.

Yes, it does work, provided you enter a date, and spell the original article name in a flawless and case-sensitive way.

Good lord, what little busy bees.

EricBarbour wrote:And just btw: wanna see an obscenely long article, about an obscure and trivial subject, written by a single nut?
Character mask (T-H-L)

Wow. That's not a writer, that's a man on a crusade.

There are quite a few contenders for worst title if you search for all the articles with "controversy" in the title:

Controversy of arrests in Tamil Nadu about construction of flyovers (T-H-L)
Controversies surrounding Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (T-H-L)
Controversies in autism (T-H-L)
Controversy over the Harry Potter series (T-H-L)
Controversies about the word "niggardly" (T-H-L)
Pinot Noir passing-off controversy (T-H-L)
Controversy and criticism of Jersey Shore (T-H-L)
List of controversies of Big Brother (U.S.) (T-H-L)
Boys are stupid, throw rocks at them! controversy (T-H-L)

And if Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy (T-H-L) isn't enough, there's also Opinions on the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy (T-H-L), because of course opinions about a controversy needs to be in a separate article from the controversy itself. But not international opinions, that goes in International reactions to the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy (T-H-L). Which is entirely different from the Economic and social consequences of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy (T-H-L), of course.

Mason wrote: And if Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy (T-H-L) isn't enough, there's also Opinions on the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy (T-H-L), because of course opinions about a controversy needs to be in a separate article from the controversy itself. But not international opinions, that goes in International reactions to the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy (T-H-L). Which is entirely different from the Economic and social consequences of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy (T-H-L), of course.

It never occurred to me that the words "controversy" and "opinions on" could be used recursively. Soon we'll have not only Opinions on the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy (T-H-L), but Opinions on the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy controversy (T-H-L), Opinions on opinions on the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy controversy controversy (T-H-L), ad infinitum. It's amazing.

Also, searching for "criticism of" titles is rather eye-opening regarding which people and things merit a whole article's worth of criticism.

(Hint: see which ones are simply redirects to the person or thing.)

List of Canadians (T-H-L)

Just what it says on the tin.

This is an incomplete list

Ya think?

There's also a List of Arabs (T-H-L).

Mason wrote:List of Canadians (T-H-L)

Just what it says on the tin.

This is an incomplete list

Ya think?

You're thinking small: Category:Lists_of_people_by_nationality (T-H-L)

....which brings up Criticism of postmodernism (T-H-L). Which is so badly written, one could say it's "postmodern".

Mason wrote:Also, searching for "criticism of" titles is rather eye-opening regarding which people and things merit a whole article's worth of criticism.

(Hint: see which ones are simply redirects to the person or thing.)

That link led me to Criticism of atheism (T-H-L). From there, I discovered the gem known as List of former atheists and agnostics (T-H-L).

I clicked some links in that article, and discovered List of converts to Christianity from atheism (T-H-L), List of converts to Islam from Atheism (T-H-L), List of converts to Judaism from Atheism (T-H-L), and List_of_converts_to_Baha'i#Atheism (T-H-L).

All four started by the same person, list-freak Ncboy2010 (T-C-L).

This thread, which is really about 'Articles with Crap Titles', is starting to converge with 'Crap Articles'. viewtopic.php?f=8&t=694

But it's all entertaining.

Mason wrote:And if Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy (T-H-L) isn't enough, there's also Opinions on the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy (T-H-L), because of course opinions about a controversy needs to be in a separate article from the controversy itself. But not international opinions, that goes in International reactions to the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy (T-H-L). Which is entirely different from the Economic and social consequences of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy (T-H-L), of course.

Mason, I had to re-post this on Facebook. Thank you.

There's quite a bit of hilarity to be found in the "List of" pages. List of musicians known for destroying instruments (T-H-L) and List of superheroes and villains without superpowers (T-H-L) (both entirely unreferenced), for example. From the latter:

Batman (M) (martial arts master, detective, inventor, master strategist, billionaire, scientist)
Batman (Bruce Wayne), the first and original Batman.
Batman (Dick Grayson), the first Robin to serve under Bruce Wayne and the second Batman of Gotham City.
Batman (Jason Todd), the second Robin. He is the second Batman on Earth-15.
Batman (Tim Drake), the third Robin. He replaces Bruce Wayne in some continuities, notably the Titans Tomorrow continuity.
Batman (Damian Wayne), the 5th and current Robin. Portrayed as the successor to Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson in a possible future of mainstream continuity (prior to Flashpoint).
Batman (Terry McGinnis), the second Batman in the DCAU/Earth-12 universe and the fourth Batman in a possible future of mainstream continuity (prior to Flashpoint).

Much more encyclopedic than just saying "Batman."

Some interesting results if you title-search for "alleged":
List of alleged extraterrestrial beings (T-H-L)
List of alleged aircraft-UFO incidents and near misses (T-H-L)
Saddam Hussein's alleged shredder (T-H-L)
List of alleged Brazilian supercentenarians (T-H-L)
Lists of former Guantanamo Bay detainees alleged to have returned to terrorism (T-H-L)

Ditto "suspected" and "accused":
Uyghur guest houses suspected of ties to islamist militancy (T-H-L)
Henry Thomas (suspected combustion death) (T-H-L)
Thomas Coyle (accused of murder) (T-H-L)
List of Guantanamo Bay detainees accused of possessing Casio watches (T-H-L)

And, um:
Category:Exploding animals (T-H-L)

Mason wrote:List of Canadians (T-H-L)

Just what it says on the tin.

This is an incomplete list

You failed to point out that this article is so shitty that half of it is a list of other lists, including List of premiers of Nunavut (T-H-L). Look for yourself if you don't believe it!

I don't know if this really counts as a bad Wikipedia title per se because it's just called what the subject is called, but it's pretty surreal in its little way: Efbe's Hidalgo At Goodspice (T-H-L).

Sweet Revenge wrote:I don't know if this really counts as a bad Wikipedia title per se because it's just called what the subject is called, but it's pretty surreal in its little way: Efbe's Hidalgo At Goodspice (T-H-L).

Which leads to Category:Best in Show winners of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, which is full of bizarre, AND not very complete. A lot of dogs have won awards at WKC, yet very few are listed here.

I like List_of_fictional_Jews#Comic_books_and_heroes (T-H-L) myself.

More contenders:
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo (T-H-L)
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously (T-H-L)
James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher (T-H-L)
Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft (T-H-L)
Boys are stupid, throw rocks at them! controversy (T-H-L)
Max Headroom broadcast signal intrusion incident (T-H-L)
Baseball metaphors for sex (T-H-L)
New Testament athletic metaphors (T-H-L)
Proverbs commonly attributed to be Chinese (T-H-L)
Vampire pumpkins and watermelons (T-H-L)

I culled these all from Wikipedia:Unusual Articles (T-H-L).