Wikipedia:Lamest edit wars/Ethnic feuds
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This page contains material which is kept because it is considered humorous. It is not intended, nor should it be used, for any remotely serious purpose. |
PLEASE include two or three edit history links about the lame edit war. It would be also useful to list the date the edit war was added.
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[edit] Ethnic feuds
[edit] People
[edit] Freddie Mercury
There was a feud that was going on for a long time on this one concerning Freddie Mercury's true ancestry. Is he the most famous Iranian rock star? Indian? Parsi? You'd be surprised how many people this pissed off, to the point that it is still a hotly contested item over there. Oh, and this one, like all the others, had its share of random vandals, people leaving unmarked anonymous insults, and gnashing of teeth.
[edit] Ivana Miličević
Is she a "Bosnian actress of Croatian descent/ethnicity" or a "Croatian actress"? Should she be called American without sourcing because she's resided in America for nearly 30 years? Is she "Bosnian" because she was born in Sarajevo or "Bosnian-born" because Bosnia did not exist as a nation when she was born there? Go ahead and edit the article and see how long your version lasts before someone reverts you!
[edit] Jennifer Aniston
Is she American or American-born? Is she Greek-American? Is she English-American? Is she Greek-and-English-American? Does she need all-those-prefixes-in-front-of-her-nationality-American? Did Kiriakis mastermind the entire affair?
[edit] Franz Liszt
Born in what was then Hungary but is now part of Austria to ethnic German parents whose families had lived in Hungary for a long time, and we had all thought it was common knowledge that Liszt claimed Hungary as his homeland and Hungarian as his nationality. Er, didn't he? Cue the largest and most acrimonious war in recent memory! It was mercifully confined to the talk page, but what a talk page it was. What was Liszt's real name, Franz or Ferenc? (It was actually Franciscus.) If he was such a Hungarian patriot, why didn't he fight in the war of independence in 1848? If he was really Hungarian, why is his "Hungarian"-style music actually based on Gypsy music? If he really thought he was Hungarian, why did he spend so much time in France? Why couldn't he write better lyrics for the Kronungslied? What is the significance of the Chopin-esque left hand octaves in Funerailles, Octobre 1849? What event of October 1849 was he referring to, the crushing of the Hungarian rebellion or the death of Chopin? Or was it the publication of Heinrich Heine's rude poem about him? Why couldn't he learn to speak Hungarian better? Did he like goulash? Could he dance the csárdás? The farce was compounded by the occasional appearance of anonymous trolls who insisted that Liszt was, in fact, a Slovak.
[edit] Nicolaus Copernicus
Was he Polish, German or Prussian? Or did he have no nationality at all that bears mentioning? If Copernicus were around today, he might have suggested that he would be satisfied to be remembered as an astronomer, but we will never know.
[edit] Nikola Tesla
Born of Serbian parents in a part of the Austrian Empire, which a short time later became a part of the Hungarian half of Austria-Hungary and is now in Croatia; so was he Serbian? Croatian? Austrian? Austro-Hungarian? You decide! But don't forget to leave an edit summary saying how pathetic it is to choose any other version...
[edit] P. G. Wodehouse
Who said the anglosphere was immune to inane ethnological disputes? This debate, over a single word in the article, consumed most of the month of September 2007. The key question is: is he an English writer or is he a British writer of English origin? Can we add American in there somewhere because he moved to America at age 74? Well over 50% of the talk page is dedicated to this one issue. The two editors warring over it filed simultaneous 3RR reports against each other and a RFC. Accusations of weasel wording appear in the talk page. Fine points of policy debated: does reverting to prevent a revert war contitute a real revert? Does it count as a revert if you call it vandalism, even if it is a content dispute? Is it bad faith to remove HTML comments from the page if only editors will see them, or do such invisible comments constitute a vandalism of their own? Is it a bad thing to use the "minor" button to "conceal" changes?
[edit] Raven Riley
Is this porn star Italian? Native American? Puerto Rican? Cypriot? Does she have Indian blood? Make sure that, when you change it, you don't even think about citing any source, but please feel free to insult whoever put in the previous ethnicity. Anonymous editors--be sure to insert multitudes of different "real names" of her, with no sourcing whatsoever.
[edit] Werner Herzog
Born in Germany, supposedly of a German mother and a Yugoslavian father, and raised in Bavaria, Germany. Does that make Herzog: a) Croatian or b) Serbian? How about the fact that the relatives live in in Bosnia-Herzegovina? Use edit summaries to publish interviews that you conducted — or heard rumors about. Mirrors and forks are great sources too. After consulting a printed source, it turns out that it was the mother who was from Croatia. Ouch.
[edit] Places and other things
[edit] Dokdo Liancourt Rocks Takeshima Dokdo → Dokdo → Liancourt Rocks → ?
A group of sinking volcanic rocks has been claimed by both Japan and Korea since really really long ago. Evidence of ownership for either side rests on hard-to-read decaying pieces of old paper. This is not a silly dispute as the rocks have important economic and military value, yada yada yada. Serious Wikipedians (of Korean or Japanese citizenship) may even choose to make these rocks their place of residence (living there not required!) to bolster their case. This article extensively documents every little factoid that could possibly indicate ownership by one country, with each, of course, having a countering statement. Few Wikipedians of non-Japanese or Korean descent and newspapers are part of the discussion, yet everyone claims their POV is NPOV. As properly befitting this major political issue, most edit summaries begin with "rv..." Luckily, at least the title of the article has been settled on...or has it?
[edit] Florina and other towns in Macedonia (Greece)
Edit war about whether the alternative name Lerin is Macedonian, Bulgarian or south Slavic (which covers both Macedonian and Bulgarian).
[edit] Foustanella
Who first donned a frilly skirt and threatened to kill anyone who questioned his manhood over it? Was he Albanian or Greek? If Albanian, Gheg or Tosk? Thankfully, none of the modern day warriors on this topic have access to real weapons (we hope!)
[edit] Pavlova (food)
Not the dancer, but rather the tasty antipodean dessert, which was invented in Australia[1], New Zealand [2], Australia[3], [4], [5], New Zealand...
[edit] Sea of Japan
Should it be called the Sea of Japan, the East Sea, or even the East Sea of Korea? Are both names valid, and if so, should the article be named Sea of Japan (East Sea) or Sea of Japan / East Sea? Or is the actual most common English and international name Sea of Japan (East Sea), parentheses and all? Should the dispute page be called the Sea of Japan naming dispute, or the Dispute between the body of water between Japan and Korea? (Ironically, the neutrality of the Sea of Japan naming dispute is disputed.) Given the existence of other names meaning "East Sea" in other languages, should East Sea redirect to the disambiguation page or to the "body of water between Japan and Korea"?
