Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Shakespeare authorship question/archive1

Shakespeare authorship question

Shakespeare authorship question (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

• Featured article candidates/Shakespeare authorship question/archive1

Nominator(s): Tom Reedy (talk) 02:07, 1 March 2011 (UTC) and Paul B (talk) 11:20, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

Over the past 14 months this article has received an extensive makeover that at one time involved probably half of Wikipedia's administrators (not really, but it sure seemed that way sometimes). It is probably the most accurate and balanced short treatment of the topic that can be found on the Internet. POV issues were wrung out of the article (often painfully) during an intensive editing process by many excellent editors over the past few months. Once the scene of many POV battles, the article and talk page have achieved a high degree of stability over the past several months and has been edited with a high degree of collegiality. All references used in the article are from scholarly and reliable sources, an achievement in itself given the nature of the topic. Thanks to a lot of extremely talented editors, this article can serve as a model for other related Wikipedia articles. My hope is that this group of editors continues to work on those pages. Tom Reedy (talk) 02:07, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

Tom has put in a tremendous amount of effort over the past year, and there has recently been a nice collaboration going with several editors involved in the preparations for FAC. I am happy to certify this nomination. --Xover (talk) 08:21, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

This article does not meet the listed criteria. The prose is pedestrian. It is certainly not 'engaging, even brilliant'. The article is not 'comprehensive'. It neglects major facts concerning the reasons why certain individuals have been proposed as authorship candidates. It is not particularly well-researched, for the same reason that it is not comprehensive. It is decidedly not neutral, and if it is accepted for featured article status it will be a triumph for outright censorship on Wikipedia since all editors other than those supporting the orthodox view of the authorship controversy were either discouraged from contributing to the article or outright banned by Wikipedia. It has been the subject of ongoing edit wars for four years, and is only recently 'stable' because editors who did not support the orthodox view were banned from editing. It is an overly lengthy treatment of the topic with an abundance of unnecessary footnotes, and its structure is illogical, as the historical section is in the middle of the article.72.234.212.189 (talk) 05:48, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

Note that this topic area has been the subject of a recent ArbCom case and that standard discretionary sanctions have been authorized. The IP-edit above amply illustrates why that was necessary, and I would urge everyone to not needlessly engage with the various drive-by commenters that have been an issue whenever this topic has been the subject of a community process in the past. --Xover (talk) 08:06, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

• Indeed, I wish to make clear right off the bat that FAC delegates will remove commentary by users or socks of users who were banned from this topic area. --Andy Walsh (talk) 14:52, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

• I'll say once more: Off-topic discussion, continuation of previous disputes, and discussion of editors will not be tolerated on this page. I've just moved volumes of nonsense to the talk page—if this can't kept to concise statements directly actionable to WP:WIAFA, I will consider administrative actions for disruption applied to involved individuals. This is not the place to carry on your disputes and grind axes. --Andy Walsh (talk) 23:18, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

• @BenJonson: you misunderstand, or fail to read, Andy Walsh's comment. Nothing has been deleted. Your axe-grinding has been moved to the talkpage. To this page. See where Andy Walsh says so? The talk or "discussion" page is the place for discussion, but please beware of disruption and personal attacks on the talkpage also. Standard discretionary sanctions apply to this article. Bishonen | talk 02:40, 2 March 2011 (UTC).

@Bishonen: Thank you for the clarification. I suppose I mistook the astounding remark "I've just moved volumes of nonsense to the talk page I will consider administrative actions for disruption applied to involved individuals" at face value as being the sort of thing a responsible administrator writes in a "community" that is seeking the truth. "volumes of nonsense?" "consider administrative actions for disruption applied to involved individuals?" Really now, LaserBrain, was it necessary to categorize the material you removed in such a prejudicial mannner and to issue these threats against people who are merely standing up for common decency? Apparently so. And that's a damn pity. I apologize for misunderstanding, but this kind of high-handed admining does nobody any good and gives Wikipedia a bad name. If you need to move something, why not just say "I moved XYZ" instead of writing your own prejudice all over the page that remains so that anyone turning to the now moved material will already know what he or she is supposed to think about it? Bishonen -- you're a hero for the neutrality of your correction. Please consider applying your own comments about disruption when you review the history of the editing of the page in question. 95% of the disruption has come from the parties now controlling the editing. Thanks.--BenJonson (talk) 03:22, 2 March 2011 (UTC)