Wikipedia:Lamest edit wars/Names
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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.
[edit] Names
[edit] English names
[edit] Avengers (comics)
Should there be a separate page for New Avengers (comics)? Is the name of the team now the New Avengers or is it just a new Avengers? Is it a new comic entirely or just a continuation of the old one? Following a positive merge vote, a series of reverts occurs when an editor "merges" the two by simply pasting the merged information into the article, creating two articles in one. The slow nature of the revert war means that, technically, nobody violates WP:3RR, and requests for help from other admins go unheeded because, well, it's lame. After a series of exchanges on the talk page questioning people's command of English as well as their sanity, the issue appears to have been settled with the creation of New Avengers (comic book) (note the oh-so-subtle distinction) based on the WikiProject Comics guidelines.
[edit] C#
In the name of the programming language C#, is that # thing (octothorpe) after the C a number sign or the musical sharp symbol? What should the wrongname template say? Some argue that a Microsoft FAQ supports the sharp symbol, while others argue that the ECMA standard promotes the # symbol and that it has better browser support. Some propose using # as a superscript (C#), which few editors like. Editors repeatedly reverted between each other, some refusing to discuss the issue on the talk page. The issue was resolved with an e-mail exchange with Microsoft stating that in their view it's an octothorpe symbol representing the sharp symbol, similar to how "<=" represents the less than or equal symbol, and that thus Microsoft does not disagree with ECMA. Written "Netscape" but pronounced "Mozilla", eh?
[edit] Devil's Lake (North Dakota)
Shockingly, there are multiple locations in the United States with the name "Devil's Lake." A very heated war broke out here regarding which one should be featured, whether a disambig page was needed, even over the usage of the apostrophe—eventually literally degenerating into "my lake is better than yours!"
[edit] Eris (dwarf planet)
Was Eris named after the Greek goddess Eris or the Greek and Discordian goddess Eris? Does it matter that the IAU and discoverer Michael E. Brown referenced only the Greek aspect, even though the referenced mythological event was identical with The Original Snub? Is mentioning Discordianism POV because it gives the religion undue weight? Edit war results in loss of good article status and temporary article locking. War finally resolved by not actually mentioning what type of goddess Eris is. See also: Pluto.
[edit] Flavor of Love
Should second-season winner "Deelishis" be credited as her birth name, Chandra Davis, or her stage name, London Charles? Months of IP additions and months of "IF YOU REVERT WITHOUT DISCUSSION, YOU'RE GONNA BE BLOCKED!" ensue. In the end, nobody got blocked and the dispute died down on its own, probably because both sides realized they were battling over a woman who willingly went on a reality television show to "fall in love with" Flavor Flav. Yeah, boyeeeeeee!
[edit] G4techTV Canada
Does the name of a Canadian TV channel, originally an offshoot of namesake American one, contain word "Canada" in its official title, ergo it should be parenthesized in the title? It's a terribly important matter, as witnessed by an intense move war and circular discussion on the talk page.
[edit] Fossil fuel for reciprocating piston engines equipped with spark plugs
Should this substance be called 'gasoline' or 'petrol'? See the talk page for a debate about the total number of English speakers in the world (and whether Americans should be considered an important part of it); the relative utility of search engines; claims that UK-wikipedians are set to re-establish the British empire by moving pages to British spellings, counter-claims that Americans who want "gasoline" are being their usual nationalistic/culturally-imperialistic selves; RFC nominations, page-move warring and deletion debates, failed attempts to achieve compromise via some truly freaky article names (far beyond the suggested "Gasoline (petrol)" and "Petrol (gasoline)") and even the creation of templates to separate the article into sections individually tailored for both Commonwealth and American English tastes. Gasoline has been settled on for now, in part because that was the article's title originally, but the fallout has yet to settle.
[edit] Halo 2 and Halo 3
Should there be a disambiguation to Pretty Hate Machine and "Head Like a Hole"? Are Halo numbers official and accepted by Trent Reznor? Are the Halo numbers notable enough to be disambiguated? Are any people going to search for Halo 2 or 3, not expecting information about a video game? Is the form of the Halo number Halo 3 or halo_03 or HALO 3?
[edit] Lady Jane Grey
Was she really a Queen of England? Should her page be at Jane of England or Lady Jane Grey? Should she be referred to as Her Majesty Queen Jane? Does her husband merit inclusion in List of royal consorts of the United Kingdom? Resulted in many cut-and-paste page moves, edit warring across multiple pages and flaming on those talk pages. Warriors did not come to their senses even when it was pointed out how long Jane herself had been dead.
[edit] Nobel Prize in Economics
Should this article (and other articles and templates that mention this award) use the common name of the award, or the official name, Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel? The debate has involved endless discussions, requested moves, revert wars, blocks, and more.
[edit] Richard Kyanka
An unseemly brawl over whether the article should name him "Richard Kyanka" or "Richard Charles Kyanka". At least the anon editors insisting on the insertion of the middle name provided good verifiable sources.
[edit] Libertarian Socialism
Various supporters of the US Libertarian party (founded in 1971) argue that they own the meaning of the word 'libertarian', that placing it next to 'socialism' is a contradiction in terms, and hence that libertarian socialism (described circa 1850) cannot possibly have existed. An edit war and request-for-deletion war ensues.
[edit] Missing sun motif
Is it a collection of myths or a motif? Should "sun" be capitalized or not? What about "underworld"? Edit warring here over these and other weighty issues have involved four editors and most of the article's history.
[edit] Richard Neustadt
Two months of edit war on whether the page should say "[[Harry S Truman|President Truman]]" or "President [[Harry S Truman]]" (plus the same with several other presidents).
[edit] Pluto
For decades regarded as a planet, it became a dwarf planet (as defined by the IAU) in 2006. Shortly after, it was duly assigned a minor planet number of 134340. Much contention ensued at the talk page about whether the article should be at 134340 Pluto or whether the disgraced planet should retain its simpler name (or, for that matter, whether to consider it a planet or not).
[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"?
[edit] State Routes
Should articles for U.S. state routes use the format "State Route xx" or "Route xx (State)" or something else (where xx is the route number)? There were numerous edit wars and huge debates over official terms versus common vernacular and over uniformity versus state individuality. Some advocated for the pipe tricked version while others preferred full string method of disambiguation. This battle raged on for about a full year between roadfans, members of the U.S. Roads WikiProject, regular editors, and administrators, resulting in a few probations and even a song. The debate was finally settled with a poll after three previous "naming convention" conventions (#1, #2, #3) failed to resolve the conflict. In the end, the "State Route xx" format prevailed by a small margin. All the state route articles in the United States have been grandfathered into this format. Apparently the fourth try's the charm!
[edit] Straight Outta Lynwood
For this CD by "Weird Al" Yankovic, a dispute about whether "outta" should be capitalized spawned lengthy threads on the admin noticeboard, as well as accusations of abuse, and page protection. Arguments focus on whether "Outta" is a preposition, whether it's relevant that it's not shorter than five letters, and whether the way the title is spelled on the actual CD is more important than our manual of style. Until a naming convention change, Straight Outta Lynwood may be SOL (or SoL).
[edit] Cornelius Vanderbilt
When a vandal struck and a good user reverted all but one of his/her edits, an edit war ensued over whether Cornelius was nicknamed "The Ass" or not. Another good user stopped the short edit war by adding a comment about the missed vandalism.
[edit] Her Late Majesty
Must a queen deceased for over a century still be styled here "Her Majesty", an epithet conventionally reserved for the current monarch? This weighty dispute (pale reflection of warring here), filling talk pages and edit histories, has spilled over into other British monarchs, other royals and titleholders, several countries having or having had a monarchy, claimants and other royal pretensions, and even hundreds of holders of the papacy, where popes centuries dead are endorsed as “His Holiness” here, losing and regaining the endorsement with blinks of eyes. Ongoing debates deal with the format of dates, and the used or unused, existing or non-existent surnames family names house names former fiefs (some inherited names, but very few are sure what they precisely are) of monarchs and relatively unfamiliar variants of those (as well as the putative name of the horse of her late majesty's husband's family), with most edits being extremely trivial. Involved parties vouch for only aiming at accuracy, and certainly some argumentation goes deeper than believed humanly possible. This even created an edit war over whether it could be mentioned here. A truce, seemingly imposed by a Royal intervention that dragged in innocent bystander Prince Michael of Kent, Scottish accents and snail slime, appears to be holding, though occasionally some new fallout is being generated.
[edit] "Local girl makes good"
Pet views on royalty again, mostly the same parties warring - but this time, aligned contrariwise. Could an American woman who made an ex-king her catch keep the title she was bestowed by the marriage ... or is the "she stole our king" attitude a sufficient reason to revert her (posthumously) back to her second husband's surname, Wallis Simpson? See how contrary POVs enter the debate ==== persons who had wanted "majesties" and "highnesses" used in each minor royal's articles arguing to strip an American girl of her only nobility title, and see chivalrous Americans fighting to the metaphorical death in defense of a countrywoman's entitlement. An interesting point has been whether it is fatal or not that she married her Duke after his abdication, and this relates to various and sundry Austrian, Russian, and Romanian monarchies lost, as well as to her sisters-in-law and also to Fergie.
[edit] Wii
Is this article about "Wii" or "Nintendo Wii"? If it's "Wii," should it be called just "Wii" or "the Wii"? Or maybe "Nintendo's Wii"? Does it rhyme with "We" or "Wee"? Should "Wee" link to urine? Is "Wee" slang or a euphemism for urine? Is it a British or International word for urine? Is it even worth mentioning in the article at all? Just some of the hard-hitting issues that provoked in excess of 1500 edits in the space of two weeks -- long before the console was even released, and shortly before a massive war breaks out over "non-official external links" that leads to a huge strawpoll to end the issue, and continuing debates over whether the official or unofficial names of the console and its accessories (for example, the "Wii Remote" aka "Wii-mote" aka "Wiimote") are more commonly used and which ones should be mentioned in which articles.
[edit] William of Orange
Was the name of one King of England and also of some totally obscure minor characters in the mists of history — or was it actually the name of two important and well-known Protestant Heads of State, etc? That became the object of a dispute over a redirect. This vital question divided a bunch of eminent readers of history and led to a revert war that alternated the redirect almost every hour. Casual viewers were holding their breath when coming to check what was the current position of that weathervane. As the name's usage in English-speaking cultures was perceived to be the determining factor, there were attempts to almost hand-count English-speakers in New Zealand, South Africa, etc. — all apparently using the hallowed name in certain way. Extensive and in-depth arguments in several talk pages and usertalk pages included claims of original primary authorship of a redirect as well as accusations of nationalistic POV, filibustering and "using all the tricks in the box." This teaches us some things about disambiguation pages and potential problems surrounding even such tools. A formal poll resulted in votes 9-5 in favor of renaming the disambiguation page as simply William of Orange, and most fallout is being settled.
[edit] Involving other languages
[edit] 2006 FIFA World Cup
In Swiss German, "ss" is used in place of the ligature "ß". So should the German name use "Fußball" or "Fussball"? Despite the fact that even the German version of the page wasn't consistent, many editors were convinced that they knew best, and the edit war still lives on. See also Voßstraße.
[edit] Bolzano-Bozen or Bozen-Bolzano
This city in North Italy has two official names, Bolzano and Bozen, which are used together on street signs and the like. Should the article be under Bolzano, Bozen, Bolzano-Bozen, Bolzano (Bozen), or Bozen-Bolzano? Surely one of these Italian-German German-Italian names is English usage; or should we try Botzen? Or Bolzano-Bozen-Bulsan-Bocen-Boceno-Bolzan-Bauzanum-Bocenas-Bulsaun-Bolzanu-Buzzanu? This has spread to several talk pages; highlights so far include the two separate move requests from Bozen-Bolzano to Bolzano-Bozen (or was it the other way around?).
[edit] Gdańzig
Edit wars have been occurring for most of Wikipedia's history with regards to the exact name of this Polish German Prussian Eastern Central Northern European Baltic Baltijas city. The edit war is so notorious that it is mentioned in the April Fools 2006 "Wikipedia's first IRC chat" log.
[edit] Kiev, the capital of Ukraine
Has the (mis)fortune of its Russian name being internationally much more widely known than its native Ukrainian name. The best efforts of the government of Ukraine to determine by legislation the name of its own capital in the English language led only to edit and revert wars in Wikipedia, as some editors refused to comply with the government's decision, insisting that the best-known version should be used, and in the end they won. Since it was unthinkable that any of the warring camps were wrong in their contentions, it must have been the NPOV policy that was faulty.
[edit] Tsushima Basin
Is it important to know that Korea has been preparing to officially register the name "Ulleung Basin"? The ocean feature is known both under the Japanese name Tsushima basin and under the Korean name Ulleung basin. There is also lots of disagreement which name is the more commonly used name in English for a place that pretty much nobody knows. (Also see the related lame edit war for the Land making up Tsushima subprefecture below and the related edit war concerning the Liancourt Rocks above.)
[edit] University of Sydney
Does this university have a Latin name, Universitas Sidneiensis, and should it appear in the infobox? Is the evidence for the name from a primary source or a secondary source? The battle continues.
[edit] Voßstraße
Edit war over which name to use: Voßstraße, Vossstrasse, or even Voss strasse or Voss-strasse. The lengthy, unproductive discussions involve legibility, respect of original spelling, a wide variety of silly name callings, an ANI thread, a call to arms, two separate AfD debates, a short move war and Der Spiegel ranking it among the five absurdest Wikipedia debates despite the fact that there is a photo showing that on Berlin's street signs its written Voßstraße. See also 2006 FIFA World Cup.
