Wikipedia:Lamest edit wars/Wording

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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 Wording 1.1 Amy Dumas 1.2 Angels and Airwaves 1.3 Aquarela do Brasil 1.4 Cat 1.5 Christianity 1.6 Conch Republic 1.7 Cranky Kong 1.8 Cute 1.9 Daylight saving time 1.10 Deadly Hands of Kung Fu 1.11 Europe 1.12 Exploding whale 1.13 Final Fantasy VIII 1.14 Fred G. Sanford 1.15 Gary Glitter 1.16 John Kerry 1.17 Katie Couric 1.18 Leck mich im Arsch 1.19 Limp Bizkit 1.20 London Underground 1.21 Mama's Family 1.22 Psephos 1.23 Sophomore 1.24 Squall Leonhart 1.25 Switch? 1.26 Tifa Lockhart 1.27 Tiger 1.28 United Kingdom 1.29 Urban75

[edit] Wording

[edit] Amy Dumas

Questions have arisen concerning the name of Lita's moves. Is it DDT, or Lita DDT? Hurricanrana or Litacanrana? Moonsault or Litasault? Powerbomb or Lita Bomb? Is the powerbomb even a finishing move, considering it's not used that often? Do you go by the games, by the announcers, or by WWE.com? After several arguments and many people exclaiming they will continue to change it back, a Fan Name section is created, listing the names fans have given her moves.

[edit] Angels and Airwaves

More than 40 reverts in one hour by two editors. The point of contention? Whether "Angels and Airwaves" is a band or "Angels and Airwaves" are a band. (British English requires "are," as the band comprises multiple people, while American English requires "is", as the band is a singular entity.) ALL-CAPS edit summaries laced with profanity and death threats liberally employed by one side. Stopped only after admin intervention, but resumed again two minutes after the 3RR block expired. Both get blocked for seven days, and one of them gets his block extended to eight days after stating he doesn't care as long as the other side gets a block of same length. The other side keeps his seven-day block. (Feb. 2006)

[edit] Aquarela do Brasil

Not so much an edit war as an editing armed standoff. Ask yourself: should this song be declared "written one pluvious night" or "one rainy night"? Ironically, "one" night was declared superior to the previous version, "in a" night. Pluvious actually won in a voting showdown, but when it was later changed back to rainy, nobody really cared.

[edit] Cat

Heated discussion (occupying an entire talk archive) over whether the words "owner", "caregiver", or "human companion" correctly describe the relationship between man and beast.

[edit] Christianity

An edit war surrounded the sentence "Theological disputes about the correct interpretation of Christian teaching led to internal conflicts and Church authorities condemned some theologians as heretics, defining orthodoxy in contrast to heresy, the most notable being Christian Gnosticism." The questionable wording was the switching of the words "orthodoxy" and "heresy". The user preferring heresy before orthodoxy claimed grammatical accuracy and no meaning change. The user preferring orthodoxy before heresy claimed it completely changed the meaning of the sentence. This discussion can be found here.

[edit] Conch Republic

Does the Conch Republic, the name assumed by Key West when it "seceded" from the U.S. in 1982 qualify as a "micronation"? For months, an edit war has progressed over this burning question. Supporters say the name is still used in tourist promotions, while detractors say the "Republic" was a joke protest, and the "Prime Minister" surrendered one minute later. Others say micronationalism is an incredibly silly concept anyway.

[edit] Cranky Kong

Was Cranky Kong the original Donkey Kong? Could it be the character in Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 games is actually his son? Or perhaps his grandson? Should we trust offhand comments made by a video-game character? Does being licensed by Nintendo make Rareware publications "official"? How official is the "Nintendo Seal of Quality"? To some people, these questions are a matter of life and death.

[edit] Cute

Is it NPOV to say the animal at right has been called "cute"? Opinions vary.

[edit] Daylight saving time

Or daylight savings time. Or Daylight Saving(s) Time. Or Daylight-Saving(s) Time. You've never heard "saving" in the singular in your entire life? Send in the dueling dictionaries. Either way, it's still dark at 7:00 AM and I'm tired.

[edit] Deadly Hands of Kung Fu

Is this comic produced by Curtis Magazines or by Marvel Comics? Should Marvel, which may or may not appear in the comic book (this can't be confirmed, for some reason) appear in the infobox, even though it already appears in the text of the article? People might not see it in the article, and will not read the article. Extensive coverage of this on the talk page.

[edit] Europe

Revert war over whether Europe is commonly considered a continent or not.

[edit] Exploding whale

Is the alliterative phrase "the blast blasted blubber beyond all believable bounds" worthy of inclusion? Was placed on WP:RFC at one point.

[edit] Final Fantasy VIII

Week-long debate regarding the "Controversy/Criticism" section about whether or not Final Fantasy VIII has a "massive" fanbase or a "fanbase as large as the fanbase of Final Fantasy VII". Other wording issues were also discussed. Unfortunately, all options required that sources be cited. The article has since become a featured article.

[edit] Fred G. Sanford

Furious edit war that leads to a thread on WP:ANI and an editor proclaiming that they were leaving the project. The point of contention? Whether this fictional character from a sitcom in the mid-70s was to be described as an "irascible curmudgeon" or as merely "irritable".

[edit] Gary Glitter

Is he a pedophile famous for being a rock star, or a rock star famous for being a pedophile?

[edit] John Kerry

An edit war erupted over John Kerry's first Purple Heart award in Vietnam. Was it just a wound or a "minor wound"? Should wound itself be wikilinked? Was the injury "bandaged", or simply wrapped with "gauze"? Is Kerry's family background pertinent? The wound issue ended with the Rex071404 arbitration case and that editor being banned from editing the article for a year. One year later, the same edit war re-ignited, leading to another arbitration case and the permanent ban of said editor, who then departed Wikipedia.

[edit] Katie Couric

Is she an "entertainer" or a "journalist?" Is it necessary to mention that she "annoyingly" drops the "g" at the end of words (e.g. "morneen")?

[edit] Leck mich im Arsch

An edit war over what to call Mozart's buttocks! Should the German "Arsch" in the title of a joke composition be translated as "arse" or "ass"? See first edit war, second edit war, third edit war, 3RR report, talk page hilarity. The edit summaries that accompany these are equally as lame. Between these edits are much of the same. This looks to continue well into the future.

[edit] Limp Bizkit

Dispute over the ordering of the two terms used to describe the band. Is the group a nu metal/rapcore or rapcore/nu metal band? The edit war also threatened to spread into other related articles as well, including Fred Durst and Rapcore.

[edit] London Underground

Should the term "period" or "full stop" be used to describe a full stop (or period)? An edit war and heated discussion on the talk page broke out over this very issue.

[edit] Mama's Family

Was Mama (Vicki Lawrence) "pro-active", "foxy", "clever", "cunning", or none of the above? Apparently this question is important enough to occupy over 30 edits in one day.

[edit] Psephos

Is Adam Carr Ph.D, a Historian, or does Adam Carr hold a PhD in history? In addition to 5 reverts, also spawns thread on the Administrators Noticeboard.

[edit] Sophomore

An admin and a user edit war over a number of album articles over the use of "second" or "sophomore". Editing gets heated and eventually results in a block and a request for arbitration.

[edit] Squall Leonhart

Is Squall a hero or a protagonist? Many reverts between "hero", "protagonist", and variant forms of each ensue as an accompanying Talkpage debate weighs the definitions, connotations, and comparisons of the respective terms relative to Squall's role in Final Fantasy VIII; other Final Fantasy articles suffer collateral damage.

[edit] Switch?

The Price Is Right's "lamest" pricing game. Should it be said that it's "the only game that can be won by deciding to do absolutely nothing" or "the only game that can sometimes be won by deciding to do absolutely nothing"? After a few dozen reverts, a third opinion agreed that "sometimes" was redundant, leading the other user to remove the entire sentence claiming that it wasn't really the only game that can be won that way after all.

[edit] Tifa Lockhart

Does Tifa, a character in a computer game, have "ample breasts"? Lengthy debate over wording, whether breast size is POV, and the entire concept of mentioning something that silly.

[edit] Tiger

A revert war on whether the tiger can properly be described as the "most powerful living cat" (complete with accusations that people were "tiger fanboys") gradually led to arguments about how tigers would match up vs. bears and crocodiles, complete with another revert war about the inclusion of a YouTube video showing a tiger fighting a crocodile, eventually leading to the article being semi-protected. The debates about bears and crocodiles continue on the talk page.

[edit] United Kingdom

Should the first sentence describe it as a country or state? The final conclusion being that it should be called both and left up to the reader to work out.

[edit] Urban75

Is Urban75 a "left leaning" or "liberal leaning" site? A two-month argument on this results in hundreds of reverts, userpage vandalism, sockpuppetry & two separate VfDs.