Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Countering systemic bias

Systematic bias in articles concerning virology

I am not talking about the systematic bias that emerges in that the only topics discussed are the ones affecting the group capable of witting in Wikipedia; but how articles concerning viruses are almost always centered on human interests. For example, prevention and treatment, since they are of the greatest interest to the writter, are emphasized the most; where as topics directly concerning the disease or virus are placed almost secondary. I'm not stating that articles be written from the virus's point of view or that undue weight be placed on topics directly discussing the virus, but how an article about a virus is overshadowed by human interest (for example, how its treated and prevented) when it should be concentrating on what the virus is (genome, life cycle, methods of transmission, and so on). So what do you guys think. ChyranandChloe (talk) 06:47, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Since there isn't a cultural bias I don't think that counts. Mdw0 (talk) 01:27, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

I'm not so sure - there's no reason why we couldn't address systemic bias in addressing only human interests. I recall that a few years ago, articles like eye almost exclusively addressed the topic in humans, whereas now the eye article is a good introduction to the various types of eyes in various animals. Whether we want to be the place to address it is one question, but addressing it would be worthwhile and is achievable. Warofdreams talk 10:12, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Point taken - although we're talking about a secondary bias against a group that cant be offended by the text (as far as we know, anyway.) This sounds more like work for a project rather than something for every user to be conscious of. Mdw0 (talk) 02:30, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Very interesting sub-topic, involving as has been mentioned much more than virology. To many articles about body parts & chemistry and their functions, I have added 'human', 'mammalian', 'vertebrate' etc. as appropriate, sometimes rewriting paragraphs to make the point. The human-only approach is an annoyance. This is not because a deer or a parrot may be offended. We all know that school children as well as adults read Wikipedia. The extreme human-centric bias will color the attitudes of a great many people. - Hordaland (talk) 00:40, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

A similar discussion is now under way at Wikipedia:Village pump (miscellaneous) - Anthropocentrism - for those who might be interested. - Hordaland (talk) 19:41, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

Possible Travel Bias in place articles

The policy mentions that young men are predominantly editors. Might this account for the seeming bias in place articles that the only good thing about a place, is it acts as a gateway to some other place? I agree that a place article must contain some mention of travel infrastructure if it exists. However, some editors have been inserting infrastructure that does not exist within the place - they have to go to a distant place to obtain it. When the article describes facilities that the place does not actually have, it seems a bit peculiar to me. Why are travel facilities so important that they take such emphasis over other facilities? Why can't those editors rely on the metro articles which usually encompass all that description?Student7 (talk) 13:21, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

Freeware and shareware

Please see:

• Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Software/Free Software#Difficulty of establishing reliable sources for freeware
• Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Comparison of wiki farms (3rd nomination)

Additional input is requested. --Timeshifter (talk) 08:47, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

An anon made an excellent point

• Talk:MV Teratai Prima ^diff

Last week, several hundred people died in an accident and en:wp has a small stub about it. Some days later several hundred people didn't die in an accident and en:wp has a large article with scores of refs and video. FWIW, I edited only the former article. Cheers, Jack Merridew 12:36, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

That seems more like systemic bias in the sources that we can use than WP itself. ♫ Melodia Chaconne ♫ (talk) 14:19, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

I don't mean to be rude but, there might be more sources and info for the US airways flight. The anon is right but that is now bias if you ask me.--निर्वृत ^Peace 20:40, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

That is no excuse. Incidents like these will be heavily reported for at least two to three days, even by Indonesian standards. Unfortunately we are sitting on a heap of new reports which are unusable because the vast majority of them are written in a language few in the West have any command of; as a matter of fact, all citations in MV Teratai Prima are derived from English-language sources only, while the Indonesian page contains one English citation and four Indonesian citations. With few able people to interpret these sources, they will be virtually useless, before they become dead links due to abysmal news archiving. I'll be satisfied if the length of MV Teratai Prima is at least 20%-30% of the length of US Airways Flight 1549, but its current state is absolutely appalling to ignore. - 60.52.74.78 (talk) 14:41, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

That's exactly the point. Since English-language media doesn't focus on it, it's hard for the English-language Wikipedia to focus as much on it. It's not really fair to speak in such an accusatory language toward people here simply because they don't know another language. ♫ Melodia Chaconne ♫ (talk) 17:07, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

What's the problem with making a translation of the sources into English for the English article? Then if someone wants to challenge the translation later they can. Mdw0 (talk) 02:15, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

• Question How many people from Indonesian have ever run for administrator on the English wikipedia? They are the only people that can put news items on the main page. They only know what their own nations show in their media. Dream Focus 03:27, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Archive

This page has 131 kilobytes and 76 topics. I would like to WP:archive (as done on this talk page previously) all topics which have not been responded to after 1st December 2008. Are there any comments or objections? Puchiko (Talk-email) 13:54, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

I suggest keeping everything after May 2008. In other words keep all from June 2008 onwards. It is nice to have some past history for people to read before their comments on newer topics. --Timeshifter (talk) 14:40, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

In that case I think the archiving can wait, there's not enough to warrant a subpage of its own yet :) Puchiko (Talk-email) 22:02, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Middle Ages

In attempting to expand the focus of the Medieval football article I've run up against a problem of Eurocentrism. The term Medieval refers to the Middle Ages, which is defined as a period in European history, even though it literally means the period between ancient and modern history. Some very literal editors are removing relevant items because they didn't happen in Europe. Because of a systemic bias the reference to a time period has also developed a geographical limiation. Is there a word which covers the time period between say 500 BCE and 1600 BCE which can be applied worldwide? Mdw0 (talk) 01:15, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Probably not. In Asia and Africa, kingdoms were rising and falling during this period entirely out of step with European developments. It is hard to imagine a name that would encompass everything. Maybe someone else can think of something. Rumiton (talk) 11:13, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

The fact that there were other kingdoms keeps being brought up and its irrelevant. It's not like there was a single empire this whole time in Europe. And they weren't entirely out of step. It not as though there was no trade or technical exchange between continents. The actual dates the Middle Ages cover are fuzzy and debated. Its very annoying that the term Medieval is unable to be used for the same time period in China or Africa if the information is relevant just because its more commonly used in Europe, especially considering there's no alternative. I hope this is taken into account when tags are being handed out - it may be that it is actually impossible to make edits to account for a precieved bias. Oh well, we suck it up and move on. Mdw0 (talk) 02:08, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Disccussion of bias against Wikipedia's rules

An interesting exchange with a Wikipedia factotem. Apparently it is not permitted to indicate users' bias, as this is taken to be an argument against the person rather than about the issue. Which, if true, means that it is simply not possible to counter bias on a practical level on Wikipedia, where decisions are actually being made. It's apparently fine to discuss bias in a vague, non-specific way, as long as it doesn't actually point out any *specific* bias. -- SmashTheState (talk) 10:43, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Looks like you've both bunkered down quite early in this exchange. Jerry is wrong to absolutely exclude ANY mention of individual bias, but it should definitely not be a focus of discussion or the only reason for inclusion/exclusion of text. Dont forget that every single piece of text can't be NPOV, but the overall article should be, so that involves balance. This exchange doesnt detail exactly what the debate is about - Are you reasoning that articles should be deleted because they are typical of systemic bias? Or is someone getting precious over a particular line? Mdw0 (talk) 01:24, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: Geographical bias/vagueness

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (aka Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder aka ADD) contains a number of statements like "It affects about 3 - 5% of children with symptoms starting before seven years of age." "ADHD is generally a chronic disorder with 10 to 40% of individuals diagnosed in childhood continuing to meet diagnostic criteria in adulthood."
In the USA?? In the UK?? In the western cultures?? Worldwide??
The sources cited presumably make the geographic areas clear, but we really need to specify these in the article text itself. -- 201.37.230.43 (talk) 16:41, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Good call. I know that the diagnosis is ballooning in the US and Norway while the UK is more restrictive. Googling "ADHD Japan" indicates that it is "catching on" there, with support groups even. I may try to tackle this, but it's usually difficult without wandering into OR. - Hordaland (talk) 00:59, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Good point. This is discussed in more depth under the epidemiology section. It is a difficult topic as the diagnosis depends on subjective criteria that were put forth by the American Psychiatric Association. The ICD 10 does not have a diagnosis of ADHD but use the term hyperactivity instead for a similar disorder. These criteria however are more restrictive which gives the less than one percent having this condition in the UK.

Complicated yes..

--Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 21:42, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

linking from wikipedia article

can someone provide some references for the text contained within this article, and maybe include/link to it from Wikipedia article's systemic bias section. 212.200.243.116 (talk) 15:31, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

Template:Globalize/West

I created this new template because I noticed at least two subjects—history of nudity and binge drinking—which seem to only cover their relevance in areas of Western culture, and do not mention enough/anything relevant to this topic regarding non-Western cultures, or indigenous non-Western cultures in Western countries, and so forth. Having lived in a non-Western country before, I can affirm that there are many topics that are relevant to all of humanity, but in very different ways from culture to culture. - Gilgamesh (talk) 03:23, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

Supreme Court of India - create articles on members

The Indian government has this page: http://www.supremecourtofindia.nic.in/new_s/judge.htm

Why don't we create articles about ALL of the judges? WhisperToMe (talk) 21:40, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

New template related to globalize template proposed

Please see here for my proposal of a new template, that would be put on articles that need to have their sources globalized - i.e. on articles that rely on a very similar set of sources likely representing one and the same POV.--_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| talk} 13:59, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

Globalize template

I love the irony implicit in the use of the American spelling of globalise. :-) --Dweller (talk) 23:01, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Units

What is the Wikipedia policy concerning units, especially with respect to avoid a systemic bias towards one region of the world? Sorry if I start an old discussion or if this it not the right place to raise the issue. I have found pages with metric units, with US units, with US units and metric units in brackets... what would be a reasonable standard or what is the general Wikipedia policy? I would be grateful for advise or a link where to look for. Mregelsberger (talk) 07:58, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

Use the countries units which are usually metric. Can use {{convert|nn|un}} to convert to US since there are a lot of US readers. In US articles, should always use convert from US so that metric will be available in parens. If it not clear on article ownership then it's whoever starts the article! But please always use convert in those cases. Wrongly assigned units (US in an article about Asia) should really be reversed so that metric is not in parens. Student7 (talk) 11:43, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

Is there a Wikipedia policy page on this. While US readers should be considered as they are in the majority, looking at this map, and given that what you call the metric system is officially called the International System of Units, would it not be prudent to prefer it over the US system in all articles not directly pertaining to US issues, unless there is a WP policy page stating to the contrary. It is also been adopted in the US in some areas, although NASA's incident with the Mars orbiter has hampered this somewhat. _ɹəəpıɔnı 20:05, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

(Actually, the US has been an essentially crypto-metric country for quite some time. Nowadays an inch is precisely 2.54 cm, and the pound is likewise defined as a precise multiple of the kilogramme.) The best place to discuss how to deal with the situation is probably the talk page of WP:MOSNUM. --Hans Adler (talk) 22:41, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

It is pretty clearly laid out in Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style#Which_system_to_use and the paragraph following. Student7 (talk) 02:14, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

People in America are more likely to use wikipedia than India?

Bias is defined in the Webster dictionary as: 3 a: bent, tendency b: an inclination of temperament or outlook  ; especially : a personal and sometimes unreasoned judgment : prejudice c: an instance of such prejudice d (1): deviation of the expected value of a statistical estimate from the quantity it estimates (2): systematic error introduced into sampling or testing by selecting or encouraging one outcome or answer over others

• Reading part of the project page, and its mentioned that most users are evil young white male American Christian nerds who are obviously bias against everyone else in the world, and couldn't possible give a fair deal on things. WTF? Do you believe that people in other nations think totally differently than we would, and would prefer to write articles about their history instead of popular movies Hollywood sales to them? What are the most popular movies, television shows, video games, books, and other media influences in those nations, for people with internet access? To say more nerds(technically skilled people) use the wikipedia, would make sense. But there is no need to bring in race, religion, or nationality. A poll showed that 99.9% of people don't answer polls, just hang up on the idiots calling to bother them. All polls therefore have an inherit bias, of only representing the small number of people, who are the type of person that would bother answering them. Did you ever see the pie chart which shows what percentage of views each section gets? Anime and Manga get a very large percentage of views. Do you know why? Because nerds the world over enjoy it and will come here for information on it. And most/all of it comes from Japan. I don't believe most people in Japan are white or Christian. So this whole bias thing is nonsense. Also, 99.9% of all polls are just made up. I did a poll on it. Dream Focus 03:18, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

It's easy to demonstrate that people from different parts of the world are more likely to contribute articles about topics which are relevant to their lives, such as on local geography, history, politics, etc. In cultural terms, people from those different areas will be more likely to write about things which are popular in their country, and in their culture or sub-culture, for the simple reason that they are more likely to be interested in and knowledgeable about them - whether that's English people writing about morris dancing, Jewish people writing about Judaism, or younger males writing about anime. That's not "evil", it's a predictable and expected bias. If you don't believe us, just compare the spread of articles in a Wikipedia in another language and see how areas which speakers of that language relate most closely to are as well or better represented than in the English language edition, whereas there will be far less information on British TV shows or American cities. Warofdreams talk 09:40, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Large percentage of views for the English wikipedia are for Anime and Manga. Those things come from Japan. Dominant cultural influences are from television and internet, not because of race or nationality. To say that you prefer a certain thing, because you are white, is racist. Nerds of any color usually like the same things. If most people surveyed in nations that were majority white, happened to be white themselves, then that's the reason why most wikipedia users from those nations are white. And a large percentage of views for the English wikipedia are surprisingly for sex related articles, showing that people are perverts the world over. So it should read Cultural preferences determine inherit bias, without mentions of race or nationality. The most popular things in countries aren't always given the most articles, but instead what is most popular among the wikipedia nerd population. Thus evident by the anime and manga dominance over other types of articles. Dream Focus 14:27, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

You seem to be confusing talk about what is more common among a group of people who share a common culture which may be based in part on a particular nationality or ethnic origin, which is factual and an essential part of academic discourse, with claims that these cultural identities are in some way determined genetically, which is highly dubious at best and often based on racist assumptions or other predjudices. Dominant cultural influences do come from the television and the internet, in addition to newspapers and other media sources. Some things are popular worldwide, others are not. Cultural influences also come from society - taking a random example from above, morris dancing is very rarely found in the British media, yet is fairly widespread in the UK - whereas it is pretty much unknown in the rest of the world. Warofdreams talk 15:59, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

There is nothing intellectual about their agendas

Wikipedians tend to self-select more heavily among strong adherents to or opponents of certain political ideologies or religious beliefs. Editors with strong opinions tend to edit vigorously and often; editors without an intellectual agenda tend to edit less since they do not desire to represent a particular point of view. This may lead to subjective articles and heavy-handed promotion or criticism of topics.

An intellectual agenda? I thought anyone who disagreed with you about anything was automatically considered an idiot by most people. ;) Seriously though, what do you mean by intellectual agenda? A religious or political belief system people want to argue about, is NOT an intellectual agenda. Shouldn't that read, "people who want to argue back and forth about the same stuff that never gets revolved all day, edit a lot more than people who get tired of that crap, and find something else to do?" Or perhaps its just the more you edit, the more arguments you will find yourself getting into. Dream Focus 03:23, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Bias is not always the reason why one article gets less attention than another

Deaths of those in developed countries are seen as far more significant. The Al-Qaeda attacks on the US, UK and Spain, killing slightly over 3,000 people, are seen as having enormous significance. The Darfur conflict in Sudan, in which 400,000 civilians have so far been massacred, receives less attention.

In this case, it isn't because people in those nations don't have as many internet users. Nor because people report what they hear about on the news most often, or what affects them. In this particular case the reason you have more articles on Al-Qaeda than Darfur, is because Al-Qaeda has more going on to talk about. They have multiple attacks, each one getting mentioned in its own article perhaps. But Darfur is just one ongoing event, nothing new happening in it to justify any additional articles about it. If the people there started attacking other nations, they'd get more articles dedicated to them right away. I reject the claim that this particular item gets less attention do to any bias. Dream Focus 03:47, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

If you read our article on the War in Darfur, you will see that there have been many developments, and that violence has spilled over into Chad and the Central African Republic. There are, of course, many reasons why al-Qaeda gets a great deal of coverage, but notice that the example instead talks about specific attacks, rather than the group in general. Would you not agree that, were there more contributors to the English language Wikipedia who were from Darfur or the surrounding area, they would be highly likely to search out further reliable information on the conflict and expand our coverage of the war? Warofdreams talk 10:09, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Need proof for the software claim. Any examples?

Certain groups of articles, such as those about intellectual property and software, may have a pro-free software/free content bias.

Can you provide an example of this? Most people would prefer something free, and if it was free there would probably be more people using it and writing about it. But I see plenty of articles on open source freeware software being deleted all the time. Dream Focus 03:47, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Why Chinese people prefer to edit the Chinese wikipedia instead of the English one

A lack of articles on particular topics is the most common cultural bias. Separately, both China and India have populations greater than all native English speakers combined; by this measure, information on Chinese and Indian topics should, at least, equal Anglophone topics; yet, Anglophone topics dominate the content of Wikipedia. While the conscious efforts of WikiProject participants have vastly expanded the available information on topics such as the Second Congo War, coverage of comparable Western wars remains much more detailed.

Is this the English wikipedia, or do you mean all wikipedias? Does the Chinese wikipedia have more topics about Anglophone topics than Chinese topics? Or do you believe that those who speak two languages, will translate articles they participate in over to the English wikipedia? Are you aware that the different wikipedia's have different rules? In the Japanese wikipedia, any manga featured in Jump Comics is automatically notable and gets its own article, while in the English wikipedia most of those were deleted, because under the current notability guidelines, if you aren't getting reviewed in third party media, as the overwhelming majority of manga never will, then you aren't able to have an article. The rules that each wikipedia has for notability, determines what articles will be allowed, and if its a lot easier to make and keep an article in one of those other wikipedias, why bother coming to the English wikipedia? And why come to the English wikipedia if you have a wikipedia in your native language? Do those who speak English as their first language go over to the other wikipedias and create a lot of articles there? Dream Focus 03:56, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

WikiProjects are a feature of the English language edition of Wikipedia, and so it is just the English version which the text discusses. The rules and guidelines of other language editions are not relevant. I suspect that you may have misunderstood the purpose of this project - it is to identify expected biases which will arise, and think of ways of addressing these, not to criticise people for choosing to contribute in a particular area, or to make the English Wikipedia more like any particular other language edition. This can include translating articles from other languages, if they are suitably referenced and demonstrate notability. But there are many other possibilities, such as those given on the project page. Warofdreams talk 09:53, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

I was just about to write the same thing. Dream Focus, from these last three sections you started, you seem to be misunderstanding this project a bit. As Warofdreams writes, there is no implication of "evil" in the fact that people tend to write about what they know, and that people writing in the English Wikipedia tend to be tech-savvy English speakers. This project just draws attention to that fact, and tries to compensate; but there is no criticism implied, any more than someone learning Spanish should be criticized for not learning Telugu instead. I am sure that the Chinese language wikipedia(s) have parallel biases; that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to compensate for ours. --GRuban (talk) 17:41, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

alleged origins of bias

(1) a man, (2) technically inclined, (3) formally educated, (4) an English speaker (native or non-native), (5) white, (6) aged 15–49, (7) from a majority-Christian country, (8) from a developed nation, (9) from the Northern Hemisphere, and (10) likely employed as a white-collar worker rather than as a labourer.

now what would you look for in an encyclopedist? I.e., somebody you want to hire to write encyclopedia articles in English? That's right, you'd require (3), (4), (10), and probably favour (6). That is to say, these points aren't in any way going to result in "bias", they are actual, positive qualifications. Now (1), (5), (7) and (9) are not going to matter one bit as long as (3) assures the editor is aware what he[sic] is doing, namely writing an encyclopedic article, not a personal blog.

The implication that we need more "minorities" to "balance" (1), (5), (6) or (9) is preposterous. We do not demand that we need more planets editing articles to get a fair account of the solar system, do we? The implication that we do can be seen as a silly exercise in PC, or alternatively as a preposterous insinuation against the integrity of our editors. Anyone (anyone) with a good education and capable of writing good English is a qualified editor. Race, gender, nation and what not do not matter if the editor is any good. They matter with problem editors, because these are going to push the pov closest to their heart, but the implication that we have more white power pov pushers because most of our editors are white, or more macho pov pushers because most of our editors are male is utterly mistaken. As mistaken as the idea that assuming we do have "too many" pov pushers of one ilk, we need to balance that out by acquiring more pov pushers of the opposite camp. It doesn't work like that at all. What we need to counter bias is good editors capable of dealing with bias, not more bias of the opposite sort.

Thank you for reading this. My point is that this page may mean well, but rests on a number of flawed tacit assumptions. --dab (𒁳) 16:37, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

Perhaps you don't understand what systemic bias is. Just remember the fact that everyone here is a volunteer and has complete control over what they wish to edit. ♫ Melodia Chaconne ♫ (talk) 17:11, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

You're also misunderstanding the project. Its primary goal isn't to change who the editors are, just to encourage them to focus on subjects they may not have thought of otherwise. Recruiting more minority editors is the 16th of 16 points "what to do about it" (and recruiting more POV pushers isn't on the list at all!). The first 15 is to get the existing editors to write more about topics the encyclopedia doesn't cover as much. --GRuban (talk) 22:23, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

Most people do not fall into racial stereotypes. They do not let their race influence their behavior at all. Do you believe all blacks listen to rap music, so they won't edit articles for any other type of music? There are differences between genders, so mentioning most wikipedia editors are male is relevant. Mentioning race however, is not. To indicate that your race determines how you post, is to imply you believe that all people must fall into racial stereotypes, and all whites must be secretly racists. Dream Focus 03:05, 27 April 2009 (UTC)

There's a big gulf between your first two sentences. Most people do not fall into racial stereotypes. - true. They do not let their race influence their behavior at all. - false. It is absolutely not true that if you are black you only listen to rap music. It is, however, true that if you are black (and in the US), the chance that you supported Obama in the last election is rather high. More specifically as to how this influences Wikipedia? Well, one of the current ArbCom cases, Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Macedonia 2 is specifically about systemic bias, to what extent the nationalities and ethnicities of editors influenced their actions on a naming dispute. The point of this group isn't that people are controlled by their inherent biases, merely that they need to be aware that they have biases in order to effectively act to counter them. --GRuban (talk) 20:38, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Centralized discussion/Bilateral international relations

Are bilateral relations of small countries less notable then those of the larger ones? --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| talk} 00:28, 27 April 2009 (UTC)

I think that's a loaded question. The real issue of notability has to do with sources confirming that. For instance, no one would dispute that Armenia–Azerbaijan relations or Belgium–Netherlands relations are important, even though taken together, those four countries have just ⅛ of the US population. Now, when one gets to random pairings of far-flung small countries where no sources indicate notability (say Bulgaria–Paraguay relations or Croatian–Danish relations), then yes, deletion is probably the answer. (And incidentally, not all great-power relationships are notable either: I'd certainly argue for deletion of Andorra – United States relations or Kenya–Russia relations.)- Biruitorul ^Talk 03:08, 27 April 2009 (UTC)

The size of the country doesn't matter. Its how much news coverage there is between them. That's how the current system works. Dream Focus 03:17, 27 April 2009 (UTC)

Size doesn't matter - we're all in agreement on that. As for "news coverage" - depends on the type of news, but if articles are to be about relationships, then the news (preferably books/journal articles) will be precisely about the relationships, and not about what editors infer to be salient features of those relationships. - Biruitorul ^Talk 04:38, 27 April 2009 (UTC)

Report on the current state of bracketed disambiguation

I have just published an up-to-date look at the state of article-name disambiguation via the use of brackets; it include the most commonly used terms, national biases and the trends since the last report on the topic, January 2007. I thought you guys at WP:BIAS might appreciate a look at some of the fuller lists, as they do give a general idea of the themes of Wikipedia. Whether they add anything to what you already know, I have no idea, but I thought I'd tell you anyway.

You can view the report's introduction or jump straight to my findings. I would be especially happy to see you editing the pages, drawing their own conclusions or offering historical perspective - this is a wiki, after all. It's very much a work in progress, and if anyone has any questions, I am watching all the relevant pages. - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 18:46, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

UK or US English?

I imagine this has been discussed umpteen times before – but can’t find anything on it. Is there a standard for what form of English is to be used in the English wikipedia articles. I’m asking as I’m new to the set-up and just noticed someone has gone over a piece I wrote and essentially Americanised the spelling. The edit doesn’t make any comment as to why it was done. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.189.18.50 (talk) 23:52, 24 May 2009 (UTC)

There is. Please see this page, which should explain it. //roux   23:55, 24 May 2009 (UTC)

Thought there would be something. Ta. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.189.18.252 (talk) 01:54, 25 May 2009 (UTC)

Bios

One of the problems we all encounter in this encyclopedia is the heavy bias towards entertainers, sports figures, actors and other "personalities" who clutter up television but do really little in the long run to influence the way people live. My hometown mayor probably has more long term influence on my life than most of these ephemeral and often frivolous figures. Great for entertainment, I watch video myself, but what real good do any of them do?

So most bios are on "junk" figures. And since Hollywood dominates the film industry, most are US; since the US supports more professional teams than most (except for association football), most sports bios are also US. So it results in US bias there as well, though most foreigners are generally not interested in US sports figures.

The problem lies in slavishly copying the media IMO. Student7 (talk) 20:35, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

Priorities

"Wikipedia is blocked in some countries due to government censorship, and editing through open proxies, the most common method of circumventing such censorship, is prohibited by Wikipedia policy."

This fact reveals another: that Wikipedia gives priority to combating vandalism over facilitating censored editors and thereby combating systemic bias (among other net benefits).

At the risk of furthering the USA-centric bias, I think this quote from Thomas Jefferson is appropriate: "I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty, than those attending too small a degree of it."[1]