- Category:Esperantists (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs) (restore|cache|CfD)
This discussion was held over a major U.S. holiday weekend, and many of those most interested never knew it was happening until the category started being purged. Orange Mike 15:48, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
Endorse self (see below). The discussion started last Tuesday, August 28th Wikipedia:Categories_for_discussion/Log/2007_August_28#Category:Esperantists. It was open for seven days, two more days than called for. --Kbdank71 15:55, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
- You are right about the timing, but how did you find a delete consensus in that discussion? GRBerry 17:22, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
- Because I didn't count votes. As noted in Esperantist, an Esperantist is one who either speaks Esperanto or someone who doesn't speak it but supports it. This was mirrored by virtually all of the keeps. The nomination itself described how this is overcategorization, and as I pointed out in the closing, a list of speakers/advocates already exists. --Kbdank71 17:47, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
- The problem with a list is that it only clues in the cognoscenti. Nothing about the existence of that list tells people interested in Irish history that the Irish rebel James Connolly was an Esperantist, in the way that him being in the category does. One of the utilities of a category is to make connections that aren't evident prima facie. The category was not that large, didn't clutter up articles the way "Category:Everybody who ever lived in California" would; I just don't find the nominator's arguments convincing. --Orange Mike 18:02, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
- Those arguments could also be said about the category. If you search for Esperantist, what would come up first, the article or the category? And if you are looking at the article for James Connolly, a link to Esperanto is in the first paragraph. The link to the category was at the bottom of the page. And the list has an advantage of explaining what an Esperantist is, whereas the category did not (rather, it just pointed to Esperantist, which contains the list). --Kbdank71 18:23, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
- Overturn. This needs to be undeleted. We have categories for other cultural and ideological gorups.--Sonjaaa 18:31, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
- Overturn I'm not sure about whether the holiday should have any bearing, but there was no consensus to delete. What you have said when deleting strikes me as more apropriate as a reasoned opinion, which you were entitled to expressing during the seven days the article was up. Consensus to me seems to be that Esperanto is a unique case and the category does not represent overcategorisation, although most similar categories would. Also, there is a guidline somewhere that points out that lists and categories do not fulfil the same purpose. Blood Red Sandman (Talk) (Contribs) 18:48, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
- Comment to closing admin: Please see the nominator's contribs in regards to WP:CANVASS. --Kbdank71 19:01, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
- Please, however, bear in mind that WP:CANVASS#Friendly_notices points out that "notifying all editors who particpated in a preceding discussion of the article or project, as long as it goes out to all editors" is acceptable. Blood Red Sandman (Talk) (Contribs) 19:07, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
- Duly noted. Also noted is that none of the people who wanted to delete were notified. --Kbdank71 19:13, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
- Ah. That changes matters somewhat. I shall see to it that they now are, though, to ensure that whatever is decided here is acceptable and valid. Blood Red Sandman (Talk) (Contribs) 19:19, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
- Thank you for correcting my mistake, Red. --Orange Mike 21:22, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
- What in the world were you thinking for deleting that Category? The vote was overwhelmingly "Keep" or "change name". Why have a vote at all if an admin with an agenda wants to ignore the vote and delete anyway? (Since you weren't counting, I did. We had 2 Delete votes if you count the nominator himself, 1 "Delete or change name" vote, and 10 "Keep" votes.) This is a terrible, terrible decision. -- Yekrats 19:05, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
- If you can show me where it states that consensus is based upon vote counting, I'll reverse my decision right now. --Kbdank71 19:14, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
- It's not based on vote counts, it's based on consensus. The consensus was KEEP THE CATEGORY. I still have yet to see any justification of why it was deleted IN OPPOSITION TO THE CONSENSUS. -- Yekrats 20:01, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
- My apologies, then. I just assumed when you arrived and said I made a terrible decision right after you counted votes, I naturally assumed you were, well, counting votes. --Kbdank71 20:07, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
- Apology accepted. You're still avoiding the question: Why was consensus was ignored in this case? -- Yekrats 20:29, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
- Overturn Personally I voted in the original discussion with absolutely no axe to grind - no knowledge of Esperanto, no acquiantance with anyone who speaks Esperanto. I simply regarded - and regard - the cateogry as enriching the sum of knowledge. I absolutely do not understand how anyone could have taken a discussion where only two people voted to delete as a majority for deletion. I have never seen such a poorly conducted process, anywhere, anytime. There is no point in having any due process if it is to be disregarded in that way. AllyD 19:15, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
- Please review WP:CON. Provided you do your homework right, at times your opinion alone will be enough to tip the scales, or even decide the issue all on its own! Consensus is not determined by vote counting. --Kbdank71 19:22, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
- Comment: Such as "Consensus decision-making is a decision-making process that not only seeks the agreement of most participants, but also to resolve or mitigate the objections of the minority to achieve the most agreeable decision"'. I commend that process to you. AllyD —Preceding unsigned comment added by AllyD (talk • contribs) 19:30, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
- Endorse deletion as nominator. The category was nominated well before the holiday weekend so that should have no bearing on this discussion. Closing admin correctly discounted the various "it's useful" sorts of opinions and determined that the remainder of the keep opinions did not overcome the OC concerns raised in the nomination. Otto4711 19:38, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
- Overturn Wow, it still stuns me that this has gone this far! -- Yekrats 19:58, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
Any reason why, or should I just assume you're sticking to your "you ignored the vote count" above? --Kbdank71 20:01, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
- Strike that, I hadn't seen your explanation above how consensus isn't based on vote counts, it's based on consensus. --Kbdank71 20:15, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
- If it was based on consensus, then why was the category deleted? -- Yekrats 20:31, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
- Please see WP:CON. Consensus doesn't mean majority wins. That's the same as vote counting, and that's not how consensus works. --Kbdank71 20:40, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
- I think you have an extremely warped view of what "consensus" means. So, you mean to say, one nomination and one admin agreeing with him are enough to get any article deleted despite everyone else being against it? That doesn't sound like any definition of consensus that I know of. -- Yekrats 10:56, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
- Overturn. It's one thing to say "consensus doesn't mean majority wins". But when there was only one delete argument made and it was "per nom" and the nom's argument was "seems arbitrary", then consensus very clearly has not been reached. Smashville 20:43, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
- The second you say "But when there was only one delete argument", you are vote counting. WP:CON states at times your opinion alone will be enough to tip the scales, or even decide the issue all on its own! So yes, one person's opinion can be the deciding factor. --Kbdank71 20:52, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
- comment - You are, of course, correct (as you are in citing WP:OTHERCRAPEXISTS). I do urge all involved to consider, however, the exceptional circumstances we are dealing with here, due to the unique place of Esperanto as a movement which transcends ethnic and ideological boundaries, and appears in the most surprising of places among disparate people. I really don't think Otto's argument of overcategorization overcomes the balance of the situation to lead to a conclusion for deleting the category, rather than rewriting the cat description (or, if need be, renaming it). I hope everyone involved on both sides will have had a chance to kick in before this vote closes; I apologize for my canvassing move, and can only plead panic, since this deletion came as a complete shock to me. (Esperantists come to expect persecution; read La Danĝera Lingvo to learn why.) --Orange Mike 21:33, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
- comment Exactly. Esperanto is more than a language. It is a culture which is not represented by any country or nation. --Yekrats 01:17, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
-
-
-
-
- Oh dear god, deleting a category on Wikipedia is not persecution. It is not in any way comparable to persecution. Otto4711 03:11, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
- Who said anything about persecution??!! I just said that Esperanto is a culture, which is a fact. Don't put words into my mouth. -- Yekrats 03:46, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
-
- Um, Orange Mike said something about persecution and you agreed with him. Otto4711 12:38, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
-
- I did not, I hope, imply that it was a valid concern, nor was I accusing Otto or anybody else of actual persecution. The remark was in the context of a momentary panicky reaction and meant to imply that I might have overreacted for historical but not valid reasons. --Orange Mike 12:48, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
- Overturn - Consensus was not as stated in the close. Also, it is error to say that Wikipedia:Overcategorization applies to categorize people by the language they speak. The delete reasoning avoided arguing that Esperantists was not a defining characteristics because Esperantists is a defining characteristics. It is error to equate holding an opinion and being an activist, when Overcategorization Opinion specifically allows for activist being a defining characteristics and identifies Category:Activists as a category for such characteristic. The delete reasonings were weak and not supported by Wikipedia:Categorization. It seems that the keep reasoning was ignored to reach a desired outcome. Trout wack for the close. -- Jreferee (Talk) 23:12, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
- Overturn as no consensus. Th quote given above fro WP:CONSENSUS is , in full "Provided you do your homework right, at times your opinion alone will be enough to tip the scales, or even decide the issue all on its own!" --in a paragraph addressed to encouraging new users. the meaning is, that if you do find a good enough reason, it will convince the others. The very opposite of deciding on the basis of a single opinion, I'd say. DGG (talk) 23:19, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
-
- And clearly, none of the keepers found a good enough reason. The reasons offered for keeping ranged from "useful" to "valuable" to "good for listing Esperantists" (isn't listing people what lists are for?) to (paraphrased) "keep it but remove people who don't fit [whatever criterion the keeper happened to mention]." Even amongst the keepers in the course of the nomination there was disagreement about who should or shouldn't be in the category or what the category should or shouldn't be for. If the people advocating for the category can't agree amongst themselves what the category is supposed to be, that's about as clear an indication that the category has no clear inclusion criterion as there is. Otto4711 03:22, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
-
- That's an argument for a tighter definition of the category, not for its deletion. --Orange Mike 12:48, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
- Endorse deletion this category was an ill-conceived one from the get-go: are Esperantists those who espouse or support Esperanto, or those who merely speak/read/write it? The entries were a smattering of both. If the category were limited to the former, it would be OCAT by opinion - can we now expect a Category:Anti-Esperantist for those who disagree with or have reservations about Esperanto? If the category were limited to the latter, it would be a mess because it would open up a myriad of categories for every conceivable language (Category:Spanish language speakers, Category:Cherokee language speakers and 6000 or so others) and how well must someone be able to speak/read/write it to be classified and what RS'es will tell us that the person is so able? What's worse is the conflation of the two into a single category that ends up saying nothing about whose there except tagging them with a label. The closing admin did well to allow policy to trump vote counting and close as s/he did. Carlossuarez46 23:41, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
- Comment Esperanto is more than just a language; it is a hobby (which we have several categories for) and has it's own culture (which we also have several categories for). -- Yekrats 00:43, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
-
-
-
- Generally speaking, people are not categorized by their hobbies. A number of hobbyist categories have been deleted and a number of categories have been renamed specifically to restrict them from housing hobbyists. Regardless, the existence of any other category does not serve as justification for this category. The point still remains that there is no clear inclusion criterion for this category. Not even the proponents are offering a clear inclusion criterion. Nothing that's been said either in the CFD or in this DRV overcomes that objection. Otto4711 02:01, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
-
- I like the way that no-one even tries to discuss an inclusion guidline, but instead decides to delete the category. I for one suggested that at the deletion discusion. It's a policy for AfD - "this article is low-quality is no reason to delete" (I don't know the exact quote, but it's basically that). The saem should aply for CfD. Try and fix it first. Blood Red Sandman (Talk) (Contribs) 12:21, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
- As I explained, if you "fix" it to either one of the meanings - it is not keepable. Now we have "hobby" as a third possibility but as Otto explains that's not a proper basis on which to categorize people. Carlossuarez46 17:24, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
- The above comment from Otto, "Generally speaking, people are not categorized by their hobbies." is patently untrue. See: Category:People associated with sports and hobbies —Preceding unsigned comment added by Yekrats (talk • contribs) 18:05, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
-
- Note that the majority of the subcats for that category (Sportspeople, Ancient Roman sportsmen, Sports announcers, Auto racing people, Bullfighters, Coaches, Collectors, Sports commentators, Cricket people, Sports executives and administrators, Exercise instructors, Football (soccer) chairmen and investors, Golf administrators, Horse trainers, Sports occupations, Philatelists, Pranksters, Amateur radio people, Rugby union people, Sports journalists, Sports spectators, Streakers, Sportswriters) are for professions and not hobbies. The existence of the category in no way contradicts the general principle that in general we don't categorize people by hobbies. Otto4711 18:13, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
-
- ... and needless to say Otto has now put that one up for deletion. Wikipedia:Categories_for_discussion/Log/2007_September_5#Category:People_associated_with_sports_and_hobbies. Johnbod 19:45, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
-
- You poo-poo Esperanto as a hobby not amateur astronomers, philatelists, collectors, streakers, "Amateur radio people", gardeners, conspiracy theorists, genealogists, and my favorite category of all-time: Category:Sports spectators! What about other unusual activities that people have: activists, vegetarians, anarchists. I said it before, and I'll say it again: Esperanto is more than a hobby. "Esperantists" represents the people speaking the language as well as the culture that he or she participates in. I don't think you like to talk about Esperanto as a culture, becuase you think it's just a language. -- Yekrats 19:05, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
- I will again note that the existence of one category, or indeed the existence of a multitude of categories, does not stand as justification for this category. WP:OTHERSTUFFEXISTS and WP:WAX are slender reeds indeed upon which to hang a category; it may be that the categories cited should also be deleted. Otto4711 21:12, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
-
- True, but in the case of this category, it is part of a large association of other categories, all subcategories of Category:Esperanto. Picking out just one category from that lot, Category:Esperantists fails to recognise its role in a wider category structure. Picking at a category structure category-by-category is a piecemeal approach and leaves the category structure full of holes, like Swiss cheese. Much better to step back, take a look at the whole structure of Category:Esperanto, and devise an overall strategy/nomination for the categories you disagree with. So, can you explain why this category is any better or worse than the other categories in Category:Esperanto? Carcharoth 21:47, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
- Again, Otto, you ignore the fact that Esperanto is a culture. That's what sets it apart from the others. I could cite examples if you wish. -- Yekrats 01:04, 6 September 2007 (UTC)
- Overturn. I actually just started a deletion review of my own until somebody pointed out that there already was one here at the bottom of the page. Here is what I wrote:
- I noticed the nomination for deletion for this category a few days ago, noted the strong opposition to its deletion and assumed that it would remain as a result, but it turns out that it's been deleted. Now pages like Don Harlow are classified as "writer stubs" and "linguist stubs" which gives no idea as to the subject of the page. It seems like a no-brainer to me that there should be a category for Esperantists, since without this category we now have a lot of pages on people who have made their name through Esperanto but are now classified according to vague categories that have nothing to do with the reason why they're on Wikipedia in the first place. Mithridates 23:43, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
-
- No idea? Did you miss the first sentence of the article? Donald Harlow is an active Esperantist... If people have no idea as to the subject of the page, then they aren't paying attention, and one category at the very bottom of the article isn't going to help them one bit. --Kbdank71 23:49, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
-
-
- We're talking about categories as a whole, not the content of a page. Right now there's nothing to link Don Harlow together with other prominent Esperantists, category-wise. Mithridates 00:02, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
- By your argument, Kbdank71, we could delete just about everything in the category namespace. Blood Red Sandman (Talk) (Contribs) 00:05, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
- Other than Esperantist, which again, is right up there at the beginning of the article, no, I guess not. Good thing that there is already a way to link Don Harlow with other Esperantists. --Kbdank71 01:16, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
- Okay once more, you're talking about article content, not categories. Article content doesn't arrange pages as categories do. By the way, regarding someone else's point above about a potential anti-Esperantist category: yes, that would be possible in theory if there happened to be a person that has become well-known simply through being against Esperanto. As of yet that hasn't happened, but it would be possible. In the same manner, there are many people that, were their status as an Esperantist were to be taken out of the picture, would have no place on Wikipedia. That's the reason for the category. It's also the reason why Esperantist doesn't need to be added to everybody who speaks Esperanto if the reason why they're on Wikipedia is not because of the language. That's a judgment call about the person him/herself though, not the category. Mithridates 04:29, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
- Strong overturn. Whether an article of this type constitutes WP:OCAT is strictly a subjective judgment call, as are questions of vague criteria. This category is completely orthodox, supported by precedent and involves no policy violation that could possibly be considered decisive. A 9-2 !vote in favor of keeping a category with no policy violation should be a clear indicator of consensus. — xDanielx T/C 06:41, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
- Keep deleted, because the rationale to undelete is frankly rather silly. We cannot and do not suspend Wikipedia process pages because there happens to be a holiday in some part of the world. We don't even increase AFD times for Christmas, for crying out loud. >Radiant< 07:11, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
- Er...what's that about holidays and Esperantists? Are you sure you're in the right place? Mithridates 10:21, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
-
- Yes. The undelete rationale is that the deletion took place over a holiday weekend, implying that this would somehow be out of process. I find that rationale rather silly. >Radiant< 12:14, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
-
- Ah, there it is. Mithridates 12:22, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
-
-
- There's more than that... While I agree the original rational is flawed, there is an argument about consensus, which the majority here feel was ignored. I for one was going to open up a review on that basis. Please read through the whole lot, and then reconsider, when you know all of what's gone on here. Blood Red Sandman (Talk) (Contribs) 12:21, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
- Comment Just so you know: One of the chief arguments to delete the article -- that the category was overbroad and not well-defined -- has been eliminated. The original poster said that based on the article Esperantist, the Category could be anyone who supports Esperanto. I've eliminated that overbroad definition from the article, and replaced it with a more reality-based one. Basically, an Esperantist is someone that speaks Esperanto and participates in Esperanto culture. -- Yekrats 10:24, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
- Overturn. For reasons already laid out. I would have voted against deletion if I had known, but in general, categorizing individuals based on participation in the Esperanto language and literature is relevant. KriZe ♠♦♣♥ 17:13, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
- Is that also true for participation in Spanish language and literature, or is Esperanto somehow superior? Carlossuarez46 17:27, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
- I don't know about KriZe, but to my mind Esperanto is a unique case. I wouldn't say superior, but I would say suitable for a cat, unlike the example you've offered of Spanish. Blood Red Sandman (Talk) (Contribs) 17:41, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
- It's not superior to other languages, but there is no category that currently shows that a person is a member of Esperanto culture. Other cultures with languages are normally associated with nationalities. We have Category:French people, so we probably don't also need a Category:French speakers. Maybe we need a Category:Esperantujano for a member of the "nation of Esperanto"? (Or maybe "Category:Esperantist" would be a good name for that!) -- Yekrats 17:59, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
- Um, Carlossuarez46, about the French and Spanish examples, we have Category:French literature and Category:Spanish literature, with the associated Category:French writers and Category:Spanish writers. Now, in those cases, Spanish and French may refer to their nationalities or the language they write in. A better way to handle this is to have Category:Writers of French literature and Category:Writers of Spanish literature, but that is a discussion for another day. Carcharoth 22:01, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
- Overturn - not for the holiday reason, which as Radiant points out is silly, but because of the existence of Category:Esperanto, and subcategories like Category:Esperanto culture, Category:Esperanto literature, Category:Esperanto novels, Category:Esperantido, Category:Ido (Ido, a featured article, is very interesting), Category:Idists (though there is no Category:Esperantidists), Category:Esperanto history, Category:Esperanto language, Category:Esperanto letters, Category:Esperanto media, Category:Esperanto-language films, Category:Esperanto music, Category:Esperanto publications, Category:Esperanto organization (which should be renamed to Category:Esperanto organizations), Category:Translators to Esperanto (should probably be Category:Esperanto translators). There are easily enough article about Esperanto and its culture to justify a few "people" categories. Whatever purpose Category:Esperantists was serving, let it be carefully defined, renamed if need be, and populated. Deletion just dumps a load of people articles back into Category:Esperanto and makes it harder to navigate. If you disagree with an article being categorized in Category:Esperantists, the solution is to (gasp!) remove the category tag from the page and/or discuss on the article talk page. Deletion of the category is a heavy-handed "solution". Carcharoth 19:33, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
-
- Comment I agree with the sentiments that a category based on opinion or language spoken would be a case of overcategorisation. I voted to keep the category because I believed it to be based on significant and defining involvement in the cause of propagating Esperanto rather than those "attributes". Regarding this review, I don't feel comfortable favouring an overturning, as while an outcome so widely opposed by commenting editors may [superficially?] appear to controvert consensus, it is precisely for such situations that administrators' judgement is meant to be tapped. TewfikTalk 08:52, 6 September 2007 (UTC)
- Comment The folks that support this deletion keep saying that Kbdank71 and Otto followed the guidelines of consensus, when really, no such thing was ever done. Consensus would mean that one of the people against the category Esperantists would have made some sort of complaint on the talk page of the category before submitting the deletion request. He should have "[thought] of a reasonable to change to incorporate [his] ideas with [ours]." According to consensus, changes should have been made incrementally so that most parties are happy with the change. Clearly there are people that think we should have some kind of category for members of the Esperanto subculture. Clearly there are people that says it should have been better defined. I don't understand why you guys want this to be an all or nuthin' thing. -- Yekrats 13:52, 6 September 2007 (UTC)
- Comment (continued) Furthermore, I think the deleting admin should brush up on his Wikipedia:Deletion guidelines for administrators which clearly states that a rough consensus should be followed, ie. the DOMINANT VIEW of the group. It also mentions strength of argument, but really only in relation to violation of policy, such as counteracting sockpuppets, copyright bugaboos, and that sort of thing. Otto complained that the definition of Esperantists was too loose. Had he mentioned that on ANY relevant talk page, I would have agreed with him and cleaned it up. I have since cleaned it up, to make it much tighter, thus eliminating that concern. The Deletion guide clearly gives an example of someone requesting deletion for a certain reason (missing reference), that problem being fixed (references added), which invalidates the deletion request. By the book, this is EXACTLY what I have done! Otto complained; I fixed. Consensus is trying to find a middle ground where the majority ("dominant view") is happy. Consensus is not "I'm the admin, and it's my way or the highway." -- Yekrats 13:52, 6 September 2007 (UTC)
- I know what the guidelines say, do you? Consensus is not determined by counting heads, but by looking at strength of argument, and underlying policy (if any). Arguments that contradict policy, are based on opinion rather than fact, or are logically fallacious, are frequently discounted. Nowhere are the words "dominant view". You still seem to think that consensus is vote counting, based not only by your comments here and on my talk page, but here as well. And, you might want to brush up on WP:V. Since you changed Esperantist to according to the Declaration of Boulogne, a document forged at the first World Congress of Esperanto, an Esperantist is someone who knows Esperanto and uses it for any purpose (of course, you neglected to include "with complete exactness", as it states in Declaration of Boulogne), an "Esperantist" must not only be fluent in Esperanto, but per WP:V, you need verification that they speak it fluently. Therefore, the list on Esperantist can be pared down considerably, as there is no verification on Fidel Castro, for example, that he speaks Esperanto at all. Or Edward VII of the United Kingdom either, and I'm sure if I continued to check, I could remove more than half the list. Shall I check the members of the category as well? Going back to consensus for a bit, how should I take User:IJzeren Jan's comment of "It should definitely nót include people who just happen to speak the language"? Since Esperantist claims now that the Esperantist must speak the language, does that comment add to your consensus? Or how about User:Alaudo's comment: the category is useful for compiling the list of eminent Esperanto-speakers. I am sure there is a plenty of those, who would like to have a look at such a list while reading the article about Esperanto or Esperantist. Did this user actually read Esperantist, or just slap an opinion at the CfD? Because I'm sure that someone reading Esperantist would need to be blind not to see the list of eminent Esperanto-speakers that is two inches below the definition. Those are two comments that I gave less weight to. I can come up with more if you'd like. Of course, that begs the question: Can I make a judgment call on any of the comments (like the deletion guidelines state I should do)? Or do they all count the same? Because that is nothing more than a vote count. And for the last time, consensus is not vote counting. --Kbdank71 16:08, 6 September 2007 (UTC)
-
-
- None of that has anything to do with the existence of the category, however. In the same way, a disagreement over what a communist actually is shouldn't result in the category on communists being deleted. It's one of those categories where you can be sure 90% of the time that a person is an Esperantist / communist, but there's always a gray area with the rest. Some obvious Esperantists are those that wouldn't have a page on Wikipedia if it weren't for their work with Esperanto. There's no other category for these people that describes them as well. Take a look at William Auld for example - there are a number of categories on the page, but really the only reason he's on Wikipedia is because he was an Esperantist. The category Esperanto literature is also a bit vague - he produced Esperanto literature, yes, but that's not all there was to him. Karl Marx for example is under the category communists, not communist literature. Mithridates 17:12, 6 September 2007 (UTC)
- Sure it does. Read it again, especially the quote from the deletion guidelines and the comments from the CfD, and the part about judgment calls. Most of it, actually. As for your comment about how some people wouldn't have articles on WP if not for their work with Esperanto, perhaps they shouldn't. An Esperantist, thanks to Yekrats, is someone who speaks Esperanto. If I created an article about myself simply because I spoke English, it would be deleted in seconds. Why are we treating Esperanto differently than any other language? --Kbdank71 17:26, 6 September 2007 (UTC)
- Obviously because it's a language that was created for a political purpose and the term Esperantist in most cases implies not just a speaker of the language but a person that believes that Esperanto is the best solution the world has for linguistic communication. That's completely different from a person who just happened to grow up with a certain mother tongue. There would also be no problem with a category for people that were part of a movement to make English the universal second language. Also, the fact that somebody made a recent edit to the page doesn't have anything to do with this discussion. In case you've forgotten, this is Wikipedia and pages can be changed. Mithridates 17:38, 6 September 2007 (UTC)
- Wrong. An Esperantist, per Declaration of Boulogne, is someone who speaks it with exactness. You're right, the page has been changed, as has the definition. --Kbdank71 18:09, 6 September 2007 (UTC)
- No, the English translation of that document is a bit different from the original Esperanto. -isto in Esperanto doesn't equate with the -ist in English. It technically defines what an 'Esperantisto' is in Esperanto, not what an Esperantist is in English. Here's a long explanation of the difference between the two (written by Don Harlow):
- Probably not a good idea to try to translate this meaning of the suffix -ist- into English, where it doesn't really fit. I usually try to say "Esperanto speakers" (a la Mike Farris). Problem is in keeping usages from crossing over.
- Thinking over the question, I at first considered that the use of -ist- in the Esperanto word "esperantisto" was something of an idiomatic form, being specially defined as it was in 1905. But then I thought about the fact that Esperanto speakers regularly use -ist- to refer to a speaker of a given language -- as long as that language is a planned language. There's no hesitation about forms such as "volapukisto", "idisto", "interlinguaisto". On the other hand, nobody would think of using -ist- with an ethnic language; "anglisto" would be a translation of Otto Jeserpsen's profession (he was not so much a general linguist as an "Anglicist"), not a term used to refer to a speaker of English. This fits, incidentally, with the convention for naming languages
- planned languages are assimilated (Volapuko, Ido - that one is easy!, Interlinguao, etc.) but ethnic languages keep their adjective form, as in "la angla [lingvo]". Mithridates 18:26, 6 September 2007 (UTC)
-
-
-
-
- "Why are we treating Esperanto differently from any other language?" We are not. There seems to be an established categorizations for speakers of international auxiliary languages. Category:Speakers of international auxiliary languages Why? It's an oddity, a hobby, a subculture which identifies people. I didn't start these categories, but it seems like a much better identifying category than Category:Sports spectators! Yekrats 17:43, 6 September 2007 (UTC)
To respond to Kbdank's earlier post of 16:08, 6 September 2007 (UTC)
-
-
- 1. Conensus is not vote counting, but I can't see how you applied a rough consensus (as suggested in the guidelines). A rough consensus states that it will be "the dominant view of the working group". What was the dominant view of our group that voted? Was it even close? A rough consensus is eyeballing the vote, seeing that it overwhelmingly said "Keep", and saying. "Well, we should keep the category, I guess." Ignoring the overwhelming consensus of the voting group and then applying your own bias was wrong.
- 2. The list in Esperantist is FLAWED and there are several names that should definitely should not be in there. Thanks for pointing that out. I will fix it and remove the non-Esperantists as soon as I can, or someone else can! Gee, ain't it nice to see how this works! Complaint about a page... fix! It's not like it's complicated. Please see this flowchart about how consensus changes over time. But let's be sure not confuse the article with the category. The category I maintained pretty well, wanting to make sure only those in the category deserved to be there.
- 3. As the role of an admin, I DO INDEED think you have a little bit of wiggle room for a judgement call. Certainly if the balance of the consensus is close, or in cases of policy violation, certainly you should use that judgement. If you are going against the consensus using a "judgement call", then I think you are exhibiting bias. And I think your "all or nothing" solution to the problem without regards to any consideration of the overwhelming majority was unwise.
- 4. What I think (and hope) should happen here is an unbiased admin will... see that while both sides had empassioned arguments, the rough consensus is about 2/3 in favor of reinstating the category (not counting; just eyeballing). I'm hoping he or she will reinstate the 84 names back into the category, so that category:Esperanto is not cluttered.
- 5. I'm sorry if it seems like I'm coming down hard on you, Kbdank71. I don't mean anything personally towards you, but this is an issue that I am quite passionate about. This is a category that I've been nurturing for over a year, so I have a great emotional investment in it. Also, Esperantists get picked on for being weird. We struggle to make our movement more mainstream, and I see this as a setback. It is probably difficult for you to understand a culture which you are not a part of, and know little about. Yet, it really exists. Furthermore, I am an admin on the Esperanto Wikipedia, and I know it is a difficult line to walk to be "fair". So, what I'm trying to say here, I am trying to understand where you are coming from, but I think this event is deletionism of a worthy category which should have been improved, not deleted. So, I think this shows a bias on your part, probably because you are an outsider to Esperanto culture, and think that Esperanto is just some made-up language. -- Yekrats 17:34, 6 September 2007 (UTC)
- Ditto. Although I have no conflict of interest here. Before I closed the discussion the other day, I had no idea what Esperanto even was. I'm not biased towards or against it. I really don't even care about it one way or the other. I read the discussion and closed it based upon strength of arguments, the same way I do all of them. It's nothing personal. --Kbdank71 18:09, 6 September 2007 (UTC)
- Relist at CfD. Yekrats has been doing a lot of work to clean up Esperantist, and while I'm on the fence now as to whether or not WP needs such a category, I'd have to say that the situation has changed sufficiently to warrant giving it another whack. If relisted, I'll stay out of the discussion and closing. --Kbdank71 14:52, 7 September 2007 (UTC)
- Relist at CfD - As Kdbank says, this much longer discussion, and changes to the relevant article, have produced a new situation. Apart from the changed view of the closer himself, just above, I note especially the "discovery" of Category:Speakers of international auxiliary languages, which was news to me & i think all participants in the original discussion. I don't myself see difficulties in treating "auxiliary languages" differently. Not all Category:French people may actually speak French, and French-speakers are obviously not restricted to the mainly Francophone nations or areas, but I hope no one would propose Category:French-speakers, which would be pointless and prone to all sorts of difficulties. But that does not mean that all linguistic practice is a no-go area for categorisation of people. Several Indian categories are effectively categorisation by language, reflecting the realities there. I might support Category:Ukrainian politicians who don't speak Ukrainian - a very hot issue there, as in some other places. Johnbod 15:08, 7 September 2007 (UTC)
- Question - would the category have to be recreated and repopulated before being listed at CfD? If so, can I suggest that after this is done (I guess by undoing the bot actions that depopulated the category), that the editors in this subject area are given the chance to clean the category up, ensuring it is correctly populated and has a workable definition, before being relisted at CfD? Obviously the delay between recreation and re-listing cannot be too long, but tidying up a category while it is actually at CfD isn't the best practice as it can disrupt the discussion. Carcharoth 09:16, 8 September 2007 (UTC)
- I think this would be a good idea. Please restore and repopulate the category, and I'll continue to maintain it. The category, I think, was pretty clean before, but it suffered from a poor definition, stemming from the lame article at Esperantist. I would like the Category to show only people that at sometime used Esperanto for a useful purpose, AND were likely at some time to be a part of the Esperanto movement. This would be a bit more strict than the Declaration of Boulogne (English translation, see paragraph 5), which states that participation in the Esperanto movement is not mandatory. So, according to my definition, the category would not be for anyone that simply gave a good quote about Esperanto, like Fidel Castro or J.R.R. Tolkein. I think it should also not include people that just mouthed words of Esperanto but were not part of the Esperanto movement, so people like William Shatner and Leena Peisa would be out. Someone that once used Esperanto usefully but then abandons the movement like Kazimerz Bein and George Soros(?) would still be counted as Esperantists. All that being said, if you restore the category and give a couple of days notice, I can be sure every person in there is a verdulo, a true supporter of the Esperanto movement. -- Yekrats 11:23, 8 September 2007 (UTC)
- Overturn I think Yekrats had well argumented. Please, apologise my lack of english knowledge, but it looks like the category has been removed however majority expressed "keep" and only a minority advocated deletion. I still think Category:Esperantists is meanfull : it lists people which actively support Esperanto, writing, singing, studying etc for it. Arno Lagrange ✉ 12:41, 8 September 2007 (UTC)
|