Talk:Guinness World Records

Virtual Bands

Is Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band not a virtual band? Their music was of course played by a real band, but so is the music of the Gorillaz, the sole difference being that the Gorillaz routinely release animated videos. But there were animated performances of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band as well, and unless I'm mistaken they sold more than seven million copies. Guinness is a joke. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Badmuthahubbard (talk • contribs) 12:58, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

Vandalism

Hi, new here. Noticed some vandalism in the museums section, I don't want to screw anything up by trying to fix it. 75.153.95.203 (talk) 02:58, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

To create

The Universal Record Database.[1] Badagnani (talk) 05:35, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Date of the Shooting-Party

in his personal Article Hugh Beaver was on this Party on the 10th of November, here it says the 4th of May - so what? -- Hartmann Schedel (talk) 22:10, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

Remove Jim Pattison Group info box

This article has a large info box linked to Jim Pattison Group and its diverse products. This group has as the article states only owned Guinness World Records since early 2008, moreover the recent history of ownership has been one of change. This makes this info box inappropriate since

• the article is mostly about its history before this time.
• Further, info boxes should be fairly permanent features of an article and
• relate to its content in a manner that those visiting it might find useful.
• It is not the function of an info box to promote a company which this info box seems to be doing.
• It would be more appropriate to have an info box in its place concerned with other similar reference products.

There does not seem to be a procedure for information box deletion except to do an article edit. Does anyone else also feel this info box should be deleted from the article?--LittleHow (talk) 08:40, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Criticism

Can we include a criticism section. I believe some of the records are becoming so specialised that you can make a record for almost anything. Such as the latest 'thriller dance' record attempt. I could make a record for the most people dancing to Mika in a Smart Car. I know this is my opinion and this is not a forum, but I think we should include a critisim section. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sweetie candykim (talk • contribs) 17:35, 6 September 2009 (UTC) Sweetie candykim (talk) 17:37, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

I am shocked that there is not a criticism section. The vast majority of new "records" are obscure things that people come up with for the sole purpose of being in this book. I have never seen a positive reaction to this trend; the consensus in my experience is that Guinness would not accept such joke records unless its primary goal was staying in business rather than being an encyclopedic source of world records. 209.216.208.251 (talk) 22:25, 28 September 2009 (UTC)

@Both. Any criticism would need to be reliably sourced from competent commentators. But bearing in mind that the GWR have themselves in recent years ruled out dangerous stunts such as some eating records, you might think that doesn't leave much. Whereas you might also think some records are "trivial", or specialised, it is not up to Wikipedia to judge these, since we are not a publisher of original thought. In other words, we leave the GWR to include what they will under their prevailing editorial policy, and should anyone else think it appropriate to level criticism for that, we can cite it. Until then, we just report the facts. Rodhullandemu 22:40, 28 September 2009 (UTC)

I am also surprised that there is not criticism, or at least debate about their denial of some records. Having read stories of stigmatists like Therese Neumann and Marthe Robin who are supposed to have survived for decades solely on Holy Communion, I have wondered why Guinness World Records has not been either:

1. criticised for denying these records by Catholics
2. defended on this point with explanations given for the invalidity of such records
3. the problem is that I cannot tell what medical surveillance was done in such cases, though biographies insist there was some

The only thing they have done is to stop publishing fasting records (perhaps for ethical reasons), though according to one source they still recognise the record of Andreas Mihavecz published in the 1999 edition. I still have trouble understadning why they do not challenge claims of mystical inedia seriously.luokehao 23:04, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

Nationality

Why is The Book listed as coming from Ireland when the man who started it, Sir Hugh Beaver was British? Antarctic-adventurer (talk) 21:11, 2 October 2009 (UTC)

It is listed as originating from the Rep of Ireland, because itdoes originate from the Republic. It was conceived in an Irish brewery, settling arguements by Irish people in an Irish pub. No British people. And, in fact, the founder was South African. But it was born in Ireland - not Britain, if it was conceived in London by an Irish person, then it would be British in origin. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mark Sheridan (talk • contribs) 16:45, 7 November 2009 (UTC)

This needs a reliable source, which you have not provided. Yet. Article states "After founding the Guinness Book of Records at 107 Fleet Street"- that's Fleet Street, London, not Dublin. Rodhullandemu 17:58, 7 November 2009 (UTC)

Also, it seems from [2] that Beaver was based at the London (Park Royal) Guinness brewery, not the Dublin one. Which makes sense if "The parent company has been headquartered in London since 1932" (Guinness article). Humphrey Jungle (talk) 23:58, 8 November 2009 (UTC)

The template {{infobox book}} advises that "country" = "country of first publication"; this makes sense, because, to cite only one example, George Orwell's "Homage to Catalonia", was first published in England, even though based on his experiences of the Spanish Civil War. There are many other examples, but this article is about the book, and not its influences. Rodhullandemu 00:14, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

Whether you like it or not - this book is Irish. Don't go into some kind of nationalistic period of denial and deny the truth. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mark Sheridan (talk • contribs) 16:10, 11 November 2009 (UTC)

And where's your source? --Yowuza yadderhouse |meh 17:44, 11 November 2009 (UTC)

Wording issue

Hey guys I was thinking of removing a word that seems a bit editorial on our part. Here's the quote "...so entries such as these were removed sadly..." Referring to cat weight. I'm a little confused as to what precisely "sadly" means in that context. Are we sad the records were removed, or were the records removed in a sad manner? That seems a bit ambigous and really not an encyclopedic way to describe what happened I think. I'm deleting that word, but figured I would mention the edit, in case someone disagrees. Musing Sojourner (talk) 13:21, 8 October 2009 (UTC)

Languages

How come only some of the languages in the infobox are linked? I'd understand if there were other links within the article (to avoid double linking), but there aren't. --17:33, 4 May 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.42.231.116 (talk)

Shooting Records

Want some criticism of Guinness World Records? http://www.bob-munden.com/records.htm "In 1981, the year most shooting records disappeared from the Guinness Book, I called David Boehm of the Sterling Publishing Company and asked why. He told me that there is a committee that approves books to be used in school libraries across the nation. The committee informed Mr. Boehm that it would only approve the Guinness Book for continued use as a reference book in school libraries if gun records were removed. To protect the Guinness Book from a black list, that's what the publishing company felt it had to do. If you look at recent editions of the Guinness Book of World Records, you will notice that most gun records by shooters using real firearms (not gimmicked with things like light-weight aluminum barrels,) are no longer listed, including those set by the famous Annie Oakley, Ed McGivern, Tom Frye and myself. It is a shame that a small group of people on that education committee, people who probably grew up in cities away from the shooting sports millions of Americans and citizens of many other nations appreciate and enjoy, can have the power to effectively erase history." -- Bob Munden (Ironic that they've sent gun records down the memory hole when the record book got its start at a shooting party!) Bizzybody (talk) 09:18, 16 June 2010 (UTC)

Disambiguation VS See Also

I feel that the DISAMBIGUATION entry at the top should be removed and replaced by a SEE ALSO section at the bottom, listing the various entries. These are merely different variations of the same product. Rui ''Gabriel'' Correia (talk) 13:53, 12 September 2010 (UTC)

As an authority

Related to its famous book, Guinness World Records has become the authority on practically all non-sporting world records. At the moment this is unrepresented in the article. Thoughts on how this can be amended? LukeSurl ^{t c} 13:35, 13 September 2011 (UTC)