Talk:Slavs

Infobox ethnic group

I am against the use of this infobox in this article. I think a map such as this, or an ethnographic map, is enough for the lead.--Zoupan 05:38, 21 March 2016 (UTC)

Yes, I see your point. There are a number of articles along similar lines which don't really fit the 'ethnic group' infobox (such as Afro-American peoples of the Americas, European Americans, White Africans of European ancestry). I suspect that it's something to be addressed in a more centralised venue. The definition of ethnicity predominantly encompasses more specific cultural groups, so I do think that following the lines of Germanic peoples is a better way to present the content. The list of estimates per ethnic group would be better presented in a table in the body of the article. --Iryna Harpy (talk) 04:17, 23 March 2016 (UTC)

Zoupan, you haven't given a single reason as to why we should not use the infobox. I might even support the idea, but it would be nice of you to actually explain why you're doing this instead of removing content from pages and saying that you're against it. As for what defines an ethnic group - it's all socially constructed anyway, there are a ridiculous amount of ways to define ethnicity - even more than there are ways of defining nations. If the standard on Wikipedia is that nations are synonymous to ethnic groups, then I guess Slavs are not an ethnic group. If not, then Slavs fit most definitions of an ethnic group. --Samotny Wędrowiec (talk) 18:43, 23 March 2016 (UTC)

Yeah, sorry. I boldly removed it as Iryna Harpy summed it up. See Latin peoples and Germanic peoples. The infobox is suited for single ethnic groups, not ethnolinguistical groups (certainly not if it includes over 10 major ethnic groups). What defines an ethnic group is one thing, the use of the infobox is another matter. Sections on nations and ethnic groups are to be expanded. I see this article's future as it should be, a summary of the concept of Slavs, not a (1) ethnic group in which we list every single theory, study, census and historical event. A future List of Slavic ethnic groups would take care of such intricate detail regarding the actual ethnic groups. None of the data of the infobox has been removed, simply moved to another section.--Zoupan 18:57, 23 March 2016 (UTC)

Agreed. --Samotny Wędrowiec (talk) 14:10, 24 March 2016 (UTC)

Personally, I do think it's an improvement. There's a little work to do in order to set up the list, but Wikipedia is an ongoing project, and sometimes it takes a bold move to kick-start things (so long as there's consensus amongst editors that it's a way forward rather than backward). It also provides an opportunity to go through the refs, verify them, assess them for meeting with RS standards, and build on them in order to improve the quality of the content and comprehensibility for the reader. --Iryna Harpy (talk) 04:42, 26 March 2016 (UTC)

Image WP:PERTINENCE

I've reverted this addition of 2 images as being redundant decorations of no particular relevance in enhancing the content of this article for the second time. Please see the edit summaries here, here, and here.

Personally, I don't find a generic looking image of Roman Catholics parading down a street in Sanok, carrying a description of "Poles are predominately Roman Catholic" particularly edifying for the reader when it's crushing up against a list of 'The main Slavic ethnic groups by religion' which really needs to be turned into a table to be easily read.

Secondly, can the EthnicRussiansInTheFormerUSSR.png map of what has been captioned "Ethnic Russians in former Soviet Union states according to the most recent census" be deemed appropriate in the context of an umbrella article providing an overview of the related, yet distinct, ethnic groups who make up the greater constituent group known as 'Slavs'? In and of itself, the map is badly sourced and can only based on very dated census information from the various ex-Soviet countries where Russian diasporas exist. It may be fine for the article on Russians on the proviso that the difficulties in establishing Russian diasporic figures be elaborated on in the text. Mind you, on that note, Tobby72, your input on the "Russians" article would be greatly appreciated as there have been edit wars over what constitutes Russian 'ethnicity', and the article has just come to a stalemate situation where it has been reduced to a mess due to some editors who refuse to acknowledge Pushkin as being 'Russian' based on some OR arguments that read more like the One-drop rule rather than anything based in reality. --Iryna Harpy (talk) 04:41, 6 April 2016 (UTC)

němci =

The article says "in contrast to the Slavic word denoting "foreign people" – němci, meaning "mumbling, murmuring people" (without referencing a source), but as far as I know as a native speaker of Russia "němci" means "mute, silent" rather than "mumbling". Can this be fixed? Netrat (talk) 05:34, 8 April 2016 (UTC)

Indeed, it is the same in Polish. I'm not sure where this previous info is from, but I think pretty much any native Slavic speaker will agree with what you've said. I've changed the article to reflect this. Still, even though it's common sense to us, it would be good to find a source for this as well. --Samotny Wędrowiec (talk) 16:27, 8 April 2016 (UTC)

Well, I think this wiktionary article is probably a good enough source, isn't it? That's a wikimedia project, and it shows the Proto-Slavic reconstruction from which all the modern Slavic names for Germans descend. --IDiO (talk) 21:21, 12 April 2016 (UTC)