Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Biography

"WT:WPBIO" redirects here. For WikiProject Biology, see WT:BIOLOGY.

"WT:BIOGRAPHY" redirects here. For discussion for WP:Notability (biography), see WT:BIO.

Requested moves

• 02 Aug 2024 – Abdul Aleem Khan (Hyderabad politician) (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to Abdul Aleem Khanzada by Robertsky (t · c); see discussion
• 01 Aug 2024 – René Binet (neo-Fascist) (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to René Binet by Biohistorian15 (t · c); see discussion
• 01 Aug 2024 – Maurice Clenock (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to Morys Clynnog by Ham II (t · c); see discussion
• 01 Aug 2024 – David Long Jr. (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to David Long Jr. (linebacker) by WikiOriginal-9 (t · c); see discussion
• 01 Aug 2024 – Dagö (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to Dagö (band) by Jähmefyysikko (t · c); see discussion
• 01 Aug 2024 – Václav Černý (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to Václav Černý (writer) by Joeykai (t · c); see discussion
• 01 Aug 2024 – Carlos Zambrano (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to Carlos Zambrano (baseball) by Joeykai (t · c); see discussion
• 01 Aug 2024 – Baek Jong-won (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to Paik Jong-won by 104.232.119.107 (t · c); see discussion
• 01 Aug 2024 – Jack Jarvis (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to Jack Jarvis (racehorse trainer) by Joeykai (t · c); see discussion
• 01 Aug 2024 – R Vaishali (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to Vaishali Rameshbabu by Sportsfan77777 (t · c); see discussion

(62 more...)

Proposed deletion of José Silva (parapsychologist)

The article José Silva (parapsychologist) has been proposed for deletion because of the following concern:

Unreferenced article with a slanted POV that has clearly not shown signs of improvement in years

While all constructive contributions to Wikipedia are appreciated, pages may be deleted for any of several reasons.

You may prevent the proposed deletion by removing the {{proposed deletion/dated}} notice, but please explain why in your edit summary or on the article's talk page.

Please consider improving the page to address the issues raised. Removing {{proposed deletion/dated}} will stop the proposed deletion process, but other deletion processes exist. In particular, the speedy deletion process can result in deletion without discussion, and articles for deletion allows discussion to reach consensus for deletion. I am notifying this since the article falls under this WikiProject. Thank you.

Ralph Puckett

How can Col. Puckett have a WW II victory medal if he didn’t join the Army until 1949? 2601:640:C500:B0D0:E177:7ED5:70:4957 (talk)

Tom Little's Sunflower Street

I would like to chage the end date of Tom Little's daily panel Sunflower Street, which is important because it depicted the life of a black community between 1934 and 1950. The strip was written by Tom Sims and drawn by political cartoonist Tom Little, both white. In 1950 it was withdrawn by it's syndicate for possible racial issues. I think that is interestng as a study subject on it's own and in the larger context op King Features history. The Wikipedia page for Tom Little is the only place this panel is mentioned. Further on, I would love to do a seperate entry for Sunflower Street. But for now a factual correction of the end dat would be great. I have found a newspaper clipping stating that Sunflower Street was withdrawn by the syndicate from 1950-04-03. Unfortunately, that clipping is on a blog, run by blogger, which makes the link controversial. Due to the fact that it is an actual newspaper clipping I wonder how I should insert that link. Can anyone help? By the ay, here is the link to the whole blogger page, the clipping (and the date in the file name) is the last one on the page. If I link to the clipping seperately, I lose the date in the file name.

Student Assignment Improving Wikipedia Page

Hi everyone, I am a student currently enrolled in a subject which requires the improvement of 'John Aitken (biologist)' article. I had put all the changes to the Wikipedia page John Aitken (biologist) and would really appreciate if I could hear advice and feedback over my edits and contributions. Thank you --Tempstent (talk) 12:01 26, May 2021

Oliver Rood

The article suggests that he was awarded the Medal of Honor for action at Gettysburg while a member of the 20th Indiana Infantry Regiment. Pv.t Rood was actually a member of the 14th Indiana at Gettysburg. He was with his regiment in a fight on the night of July 2, 1863 that resulted in Confederates being driven from East Cemetery Hill. Private Rood captured the flag of the 21st NC Regiment, although some suggest that he actually found it on the field the next morning. He joined the 20th Indiana Infantry Regiment when his enlistment in the 14th expired. That was in the fall of 1864. Thus, when his medal was issued on December 1, 1864, he was a member of the 20th Indiana, but the action for which the medal was awarded was at a time when he was a member of the 14th Indiana. This is fairly common knowledge among the Licensed Battlefield Guides at Gettysburg. I'm sorry that I do not have a more specific source.

Bill Thomas June 14, 2021

Modification of several dozen biographies to note signatories of the Polanski support letter

Several dozen biographies of notable figures who signed a letter in support of film director Roman Polanski were recently modified to add near identical text as follows:

In 2009, ARTICLE-TITLE signed a petition in support of film director Roman Polanski, calling for his release after he was arrested in Switzerland in relation to his 1977 charge for drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl.^[4]

Should these changes be kept, rolled back, modified, or something else? Your feedback would be appreciated. Abbyjjjj96, you get first dibs. Thanks, Mathglot (talk) 00:25, 31 August 2021 (UTC)

Listed at: Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Film

Listed at: Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Women Mathglot (talk) 00:40, 31 August 2021 (UTC)

• On the basis of absolutely no research right now, I do recall this letter getting a fairly significant amount of press at the time—provided it was included with a few references not just to show that it happened, but that it was subsequently covered by the press, it feels like it would be as pertinent as anything else. Obviously the inverse applies too; if there isn't notable coverage then perhaps it falls afoul of WP:UNDUE due to a lack of third-party significance. Gʀᴀᴘᴘʟᴇ ^ˣ 00:45, 31 August 2021 (UTC)

  Grapple X, I think it's clearly relevant at the Polanski article without a doubt; I remember the news about it, too. But, I don't remember any significant news or academic coverage about, say, Yasmina Reza (picked at random), signing the letter:

  Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

  Clearly, anybody who signed probably worked with or for Polanski at some point (or maybe even not?) but for Reza, at least, nothing shows up in the first 20 results (didn't check every link). Wouldn't that make it WP:UNDUE to add to the Yasmina Reza article if nobody covers it other than as a passing mention? Mathglot (talk) 01:21, 31 August 2021 (UTC)

  I wouldn't expect each signatory to have in-depth coverage focussed solely on them having signed it, but as the letter itself received coverage, and it is reliably sourced to say that person X was a signatory, then I don't believe a sentence mentioning it is undue. Gʀᴀᴘᴘʟᴇ ^ˣ 01:38, 31 August 2021 (UTC)

• It deserves to be mentioned. The reasoning that's been given for removing mention of the petition is that it's not relevant or is trivial information, but many biographical articles contain information on the person's support for political and social causes or controversies they have been involved in (see some examples I gave in this edit near the end of my talk page, just to avoid copy/pasting that huge chunk of text here). I don't see how support of the Polanski petition isn't as relevant as support of other political or social causes. Abbyjjjj96 (talk) 00:54, 31 August 2021 (UTC)

• Agree with Grapple X. The Drover's Wife (talk) 00:57, 31 August 2021 (UTC)

• Note: Mathglot's quote of my edits links to this La Règle du Jeu source, but I did not use that source on every article. Some used this Guardian article and others used this Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques source (the SACD co-coordinated the petition, per The Guardian). Abbyjjjj96 (talk) 01:02, 31 August 2021 (UTC)

  Thanks for that update. Mathglot (talk) 01:13, 31 August 2021 (UTC)

• Clarification: I may have been unclear in the original intro at the top. This isn't about whether the edit is worth mentioning it in the Polanski article; obviously, it is. The question is whether it's relevant to mention it in each of the articles that were changed to add it. I raised the example of the Yasmina Reza biography above: is it worth keeping in that article, for example? Thanks, Mathglot (talk) 01:26, 31 August 2021 (UTC)

• I believe the overwhelming issue with Abbyjjjj96's edits to 40 different biography articles was the fact she was using those three sources to infer that all the signatories somehow disagreed with why Polanski was arrested ("after he was arrested in Switzerland in relation to his 1977 charge for drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl."), when in fact they signed the petition to protest how he was arrested—at a film festival. This is defamatory undue OR, per WP:BLP, and should be immediately excised. These people signing this petition was in no way related to them disagreeing with the charge, which this user has been trying to infer in over different 40 articles with their edits. In her massive response on her talk page, she says: "It's hard not to see the removal of the support for the Polanski petition as being specifically because it relates to a man's charge of raping a 13 year old girl, and thus as yet another sign of Wikipedia's bias against women's issues." Clearly not here... just here to propagate her own ideology. Homeostasis07 (talk/contributions) 01:37, 31 August 2021 (UTC)

  I wasn't insinuating that, as I already told you and yet you keep insisting that I was editing in bad faith. That 'massive response' (which I already linked to above) that you are cherry-picking from to try to frame my editing as sinister shows I expressed that concern because it's apparently fine for biographical articles to mention a person's support of other political and social causes—or even downright trivial things—but not this one. I do not meet wp:nothere; I have made thousands of edits completely unrelated to Roman Polanski or subjects involving rape or feminism. Abbyjjjj96 (talk) 02:11, 31 August 2021 (UTC)

I dropped mention of the petition signing at Yasmina Reza as clearly WP:UNDUE. There is no significant coverage of Reza's having signed this petition, only a document that includes a list of 839 names of which she is one name. This is far from being a noteworthy event in Reza's life sufficient to merit inclusion in an encyclopedic biographical article on her life. It could be that the Polanski petition signing has special importance for Reza, and therefore it should be included in the article; if that is the case, there will be reliable sources that cover it which we can cite; but the WP:ONUS is on the person adding this material to provide it. Mere coverage in a list of hundreds of signatories does not demonstrate sufficient support, in my opinion.

I suspect that this is also the case for some, or perhaps many, of the other fifty or so articles, which should be examined on a case-by-case basis. For those biographies where there is no reliable source support other than mention in a list of many signatories, in my opinion that is not sufficient for inclusion in a biography on Wikipedia. The WP:ONUS for showing that this material belongs in a biography is on the person adding the content. Mathglot (talk) 03:19, 22 September 2021 (UTC)

No problem with sourced mention of this in Polanski's article (with a clarification to show exactly what the petition was against), but I don't support the inclusion of this in multiple bios without more reason than the subjects simply having signed the petition against the way way Polanski was detained. If there is published commentary on the significance of some particular individual having signed then it can be included in that person's article.

I removed mention of this from Tom Tykwer#Career. The fact that in this case this material was shoehorned into a completely inappropriate section does seem to support the suggestion that these shotgun additions are an attempt to tar the subjects with apparent support for Polanski's having drugged and raped a 13-year-old girl. Meters (talk) 19:05, 28 September 2021 (UTC)

Flagging Edit Request on John Stankey Talk Page

Hello – I’m sharing this post in the hopes of getting an editor’s review on the most recent changes proposed to John Stankey’s article (on 8/4/2021). Please note that I proposed this edit for FleishmanHillard on behalf of AT&T as a paid editor and I am aware of the COI guidelines. Please let me know of any questions or comments. Thanks for your time and consideration. Jon Gray (talk) 01:44, 9 September 2021 (UTC)

Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria FAR

I have nominated Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria for a featured article review here. Please join the discussion on whether this article meets featured article criteria. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. If substantial concerns are not addressed during the review period, the article will be moved to the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Delist" the article's featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. Bumbubookworm (talk) 16:59, 18 September 2021 (UTC)

Ezekiel W. Cullen Building

Ezekiel W. Cullen Building, University of Texas, Austin, Texas Ezekiel W. Cullen Building, University of Houston, Houston, Texas 47.32.60.17 (talk) 10:42, 20 September 2021 (UTC)Sonya Sustackova (UT Alum)

Request for feedback at Ace of Base

Talk:Ace of Base § Request for wider feedback on Nazi claims ––FormalDude talk 04:21, 21 September 2021 (UTC)

Proposed bot task to update infobox nationality parameter

Your input would be appreciated at Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/BattyBot 61, a request to change values in the |nationality= field from country names to nationalities in various biography infoboxes (e.g. United Kingdom or [[United Kingdom]] → British, United States or [[United States]] → American). Thanks! GoingBatty (talk) 19:38, 21 September 2021 (UTC)

Requested move at Talk:Death of Gabby Petito#Requested move 21 September 2021

There is a requested move discussion at Talk:Death of Gabby Petito#Requested move 21 September 2021 that may be of interest to members of this WikiProject. SK2242 (talk) 21:43, 21 September 2021 (UTC)

Cardi B has an RFC

Cardi B has an RFC for possible consensus. A discussion is taking place. If you would like to participate in the discussion, you are invited to add your comments on the discussion page. Thank you. shanghai.^{talk to me} 03:44, 23 September 2021 (UTC)

Admin members

Just wanted to point out that in this section there're many listed who are not Admins. - FlightTime (open channel) 22:10, 23 September 2021 (UTC)

October 2021 at Women in Red

Women in Red | October 2021, Volume 7, Issue 10, Numbers 184, 188, 209, 210, 211 Online events: New: Women in STEM New Contest (Oct/Nov/Dec): Women in Oceania contest Continuing: Women's rights | #1day1woman Special event: 12 October: Ada Lovelace Day 24-Hour Global Edit-a-thon See also: Women in Green Good Article Edit-a-thon Other ways to participate: Join the conversations on our talkpage. Help plan and coordinate future events. Become a member. You can always opt-out of notifications. Follow Women in Red on social media: Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest | Twitter

--Rosiestep (talk) 01:34, 29 September 2021 (UTC) via MassMessaging

Draft:Robert Miles (sociologist)

Hello, WikiProject,

This draft was due to be deleted in an hour as a CSD G13 stale draft but I've postponed that. Clearly a lot of work has gone into this draft and I'm hoping that someone who has worked with academic biographies could look this over with a pair of fresh eyes. He seems like a notable academic and this draft is quite superior to the quite brief article we currently have at Robert Miles (sociologist). Thanks for any help you can provide with content creation. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 02:06, 30 September 2021 (UTC)

Requested move at Talk:Omar Morales (fighter)#Requested move 25 September 2021

There is a requested move discussion at Talk:Omar Morales (fighter)#Requested move 25 September 2021 that may be of interest to members of this WikiProject. ASUKITE 01:28, 4 October 2021 (UTC)

FAR notice

I have nominated The Greencards for a featured article review here. Please join the discussion on whether this article meets featured article criteria. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. If substantial concerns are not addressed during the review period, the article will be moved to the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Delist" the article's featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. Hog Farm _Talk 03:35, 9 October 2021 (UTC)

Sékou Touré (footballer)

So this is a bit of a weird one, I was combing through the 2003 deaths category, came across Sékou Touré (footballer). The first thing I noticed was that his death date was November 30, 2002. I went to other language Wikis to see if this was just a typo and they also went with 2003 or 2002, but then I noticed additional discrepancies. On the German wiki, his date of death is April 2, 2003, on the French wiki, his date of death is February 1, 2003. The other language Wiki's Touré all use varying versions of the dates I've listed, so I am very perplexed. Rusted AutoParts 01:10, 11 October 2021 (UTC)

Draft:Bio Poem

Bio Poem is a technique of writing biography in poetry form. I mean biographies which are written like a poem is called bio poem so please publish this page. 2401:4900:51DA:F5EB:6433:25E8:33BE:A5F3 (talk) 09:25, 13 October 2021 (UTC)

Duplicate Biography

Hello. A duplicate biography article has been brought to my attention. Would it be possible for these to be merged? Bertie Louis Coombes and B. L. Coombes are the same person. Many thanks! Jason.nlw (talk) 09:31, 18 October 2021 (UTC)

If you identify which of the two is the more common title in sources, that should be the primary name. Slap {{Merge to|Primary title}} on the other one, and {{Merge from|Secondary title}} on the primary one. Looking at it, it seems B. L. Coombes might be the primary name here and Bertie Louis Coombes the secondary. 𝄠ʀᴀᴘᴘʟᴇ ꭗ 10:12, 18 October 2021 (UTC)

Thanks! I shall do that now Jason.nlw (talk) 12:04, 18 October 2021 (UTC)

Randall James Bayer article

The Randall James Bayer page, of a living botanist, appears to have been written by Randall James Bayer (Rjbayer). It was created on 19 August 2006‎, nominated for deletion on 19 August 2006‎, voted keep on 24 August 2006, and the final edit by the subject of the page was 15 years ago this month. Various cleanup edits have occurred since 2006, but in these 15 years, it still cites no sources (other than the IPNI citation for the botanist abbreviation) and has no tag templates. Furthermore, it is almost an exact copy of https://www.anbg.gov.au/biography/bayer-randall.html. Which came first is hard to tell. Eewilson (talk) 20:07, 19 October 2021 (UTC)

Obama FAR

I have nominated Barack Obama for a featured article review here. Please join the discussion on whether this article meets featured article criteria. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. If substantial concerns are not addressed during the review period, the article will be moved to the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Delist" the article's featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. Therapyisgood (talk) 01:06, 20 October 2021 (UTC)