Wikipedia:Lamest edit wars/Spelling and punctuation

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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.

Contents 1 Spelling 1.1 Ahmed Osman 1.2 Aluminium 1.3 Avril Lavigne 1.4 Brazil 1.5 Cougar and Cheetah 1.6 Danah Boyd 1.7 Dovzhenko 1.8 Graem Bauer 1.9 Hannover 96 1.10 Istanbul 1.11 Matcha 1.12 Orange (colour) 1.13 Potato chips 1.14 Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Jedi6 1.15 Yoghurt or Yogurt 1.16 ℮ (mathematical constant) 2 Punctuation 2.1 Berwick-upon-Tweed 2.2 FOX News 2.3 Frequent date of birth to death punctuation 2.4 Gloria Ladson-Billings 2.5 Template:Wikipedialang 2.6 WWE No Mercy

[edit] Spelling

[edit] Ahmed Osman

Should the country with the Great Pyramid of Giza and the Nile be spelled "Egypt" or "Ægypt?" Should the doctrine or belief that there is only one God be spelled "monotheism" or "monotheïsm?" Plenty of hilarity concerning the validity of archæïc ſpellings ensues on the talk page.

[edit] Aluminium

The non-American English-speaking world spells it aluminium with two letter "i"'s, the official IUPAC spelling is aluminium also with two letter "i"'s, and that's where the article is - with two letter "i"'s. There are occasional futile attempts to put the word back to aluminum, which only has one letter "i" in it. See here and here for the gory historical details.

[edit] Avril Lavigne

Was her radio hit from her debut album, Let Go, spelled "I'm With You", or was it spelled "I'm with You"? Intense edit warring ensued, and continues, over this contentious matter. Many personal attacks and a request for page protection were also included.

[edit] Brazil

Editors constantly change spellings of the country name to Brasil, because this is the local name of the country. There have been heated debates about the spelling, saying that it is "American imperalism" naming Brazil with a z.

[edit] Cougar and Cheetah

Should "Cougar" be capitalized? What better time to revert-war over this all-important issue than on June 11, 2007 when it is Today's Featured Article? The war over capitalization erupts again a few months later, this time simultaneously in Cougar and Cheetah, and leads to full protection of both articles.

[edit] Danah Boyd

She writes it as danah boyd, the official style guidelines say it should be written Danah Boyd, pointless edit war over capitalisation.

[edit] Dovzhenko

This Soviet Ukrainian film director is an example of wars over whether the first name of Ukrainians should be Olexandr instead of Russian Aleksandr or international Alexander.

[edit] Graem Bauer

Is it "Graham" Bauer, or "Graem" Bauer? The official site had it listed as "Graham" at one point, but several online sources called it "Graem". The series of micro debates on the talkpage were not resolved until episode six of 24 (season 6) revealed that his name was indeed "Graem" Bauer. After a move, all seems settled...right? Apparently not; the new argument is whether Graem's nickname is "Gray", "Grey", or "Grae".

[edit] Hannover 96

One n or two n's? Filling up many talk pages and much time.

[edit] Istanbul

It was Constantinople, but is it now Istanbul or İstanbul? A few editors make nuclear war over a small speck above the I, bringing new meaning to the word iota.

[edit] Matcha

Should the name of this Japanese tea be spelled using the non-standard and uncommon romanization "maccha"? Does its article need a five paragraph rant arguing why it should? To some persistent editors (or one very persistent editor using multiple accounts), the answers are yes and YES! The Great Matcha/Maccha/Mattya Spelling Debate is preserved for posterity here.

[edit] Orange (colour)

A cut-and-paste move to the American spelling "color". A move back, and statements that Canada, Australia, and the rest of the colour-spelling world didn't matter because the United States spelled it color. Other attempts follow, with one attempt to move it to simply Orange to end the war. Similar wars over the correct spelling of the word "colo[u]r" have happened far more times than anybody cares to count.

[edit] Potato chips

Should potato chips be flavored or flavoured? What is the provenance of the potato chip, America or Ireland? Four-user revert war on these important issues results in the page getting protected and listed on RfC. As a compromise, the chips become seasoned.

[edit] Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Jedi6

User:Cyde makes a remark about someone being a rouge admin. User:Doom127 edits Cyde's comment to the spelling "rogue". Cyde reverts, explaining that the spelling error was deliberate. A revert war ensues, and several editors change their votes Support to Neutral or Oppose.

[edit] Yoghurt or Yogurt

Does it need the 'h'? Should it use the turkish 'ğ'? Is "Yoghurt" the "traditional" spelling, and is it American cultural imperialism to not have it as such?[1] The first time around, this controversy spawned a thread on WP:ANI and led to a wheel war over a block placed due to a move of the page; later occurrences merely involve arguments over what WP:MOS means and google page counts. (November 2003, June 2004, November 2004, May 2005, February 2006, October 2006, April-May 2007).

[edit] ℮ (mathematical constant)

In addition to the debate over whether or not it is "actually" a number, the page has seen a pagemove controversy between whether the article's title begins with the letter "E" or the symbol "℮" (which resembles the letter "e") due to technical limitations on article names versus a desire to avoid having to tag the article as {{wrongtitle}} or {{lowercase}}.

[edit] Punctuation

[edit] Berwick-upon-Tweed

A slow-moving edit war that centred over the use of ... an exclamation mark. As User:Ulayiti exclaimed on the talkpage, "Come on guys, you can't actually be having an edit war over one tiny exclamation point!"

[edit] FOX News

One user rewrites part of a paragraph; another user reverts because of three commas placed outside quotation marks; and a revert war ensues.

[edit] Frequent date of birth to death punctuation

Frequent edit wars over whether there are spaces between the dash when writing a person's date of birth and death.
Example (January 24, 1943 – August 9, 1969) or (January 24, 1943–August 9, 1969). Related edit war over whether the month or the date comes first, i.e. 1 July or July 1, despite the fact that display preferences can be set to provide for either regardless of the wikicode placing.

[edit] Gloria Ladson-Billings

An edit war over spacing, which led to the article being protected.

[edit] Template:Wikipedialang

Edit war involving three sysops over whether there should be commas in "10000" and "1000." Leads to a blocking and liberal use of the rollback button.

[edit] WWE No Mercy

Three-way edit war (or "three way" edit war depending on interpretation) over whether the phrase "Fatal Four Way/Fatal Four-Way" contains a hyphen. This riveting debate, so important that violations of WP:3RR occurred, resulted in the page being fully protected for a month with the protector declaring it the lamest edit war they had ever seen.