Talk:John D. Mackay

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[edit] Orcadian

I request Mais oui! to desist from continually changing “Orcadian” to “Scottish”.

“Orcadian” is a perfectly legitimate term widely used to describe all those people I have contributed articles about – as Mais oui! would discover if he took the trouble to read some books on Orkney. For example:

The Orkney Book edited by Donald Omand

The New Orkney Book by Shearer, Groundwater and John D. Mackay (this is school textbook from the 1960s)

An Orkney Anthology, edited by J.D. Robertson

As an instance, the introduction to the last of these books begins with words: “Ernest Walker Marwick was a distinguished Orcadian ..” My article on Ernest Marwick is one of those where Mais oui! has been determined to constantly change “Orcadian” to “Scottish”.

Furthermore, the term “Orcadian” gives extra information that is lost if it is replaced by “Scottish”, analogously to the information that would be lost by replacing “Scottish” by “British”, or “British” by “European”. Therefore, Mais oui!’s changes are diminishing the quality of the information in Wikipedia.

As noted on the “Orkney people stubs” discussion:

“Comment- Mais_oui! has a history of going through articles changing "British" to "Scottish"- so it isn't very surprising he is opposing the changes you made. Astrotrain 19:41, 4 July 2006 (UTC)“.

I take it that Mais oui! considers it an improvement to the information content to change appropriate occurrences of "British" to "Scottish", so likewise he should respect and appreciate the value of the use of the term “Orcadian” where I have used it.

To scotch the potential “nationality” argument here and now: there is no “Scottish” nationality, the Scots have British nationality, just as have the Orcadians.

Mallimak 19:10, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

No information is lost (after all he's still born in Orkney), and the mindless reverting needs to stop. It also add WP:POV and inaccurate terms. Thanks/wangi 21:12, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

If that is the case, why say that someone born in Edinburgh is Scottish rather than British (the official nationality)? 81.154.94.172 00:16, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

Scotland is a nation, hence its people have Scottish nationality. Orkney is not, and indeed never has been, a nation. Besides, that is not the only thing you keep adding to this article Mallimak. --Mais oui! 00:22, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

I have altered Scottish to Orcadian man of letters because he has no significance outside Orkney other than that one flurry in 1967 ... he can hardly be described as a "Scottish man of letters" whereas "Orcadian man of letters" does him justice. Nationality and ethnicity have no bearing on this particular case. Abtract 11:48, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] WP:MOSBIO

Here it says :"Ethnicity should generally not be emphasized in the opening unless it is relevant to the subject's notability." - which in this case it most certainly is. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 81.155.34.127 (talk) 10:18, 17 February 2007 (UTC).

"Scottish" is most certainly not an ethnicity Mallimak, it is a nationality, as prescribed by WP:MOSBIO. Scotland is a civic nation, composed of many different ethnic strands. "Orcadian" is no more a nationality than Dundonian, Californian or Tuscan (at least Tuscany was once a country, whereas Orkney has always been part of another country). Please desist from using your (over 80 now) IP sockpuppets to revert this article to your POV version, eg "in pawn to".

If you continue to target this article I will request semi-protection. --Mais oui! 07:44, 19 February 2007 (UTC)

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