EPTWhile flamewars on WP are not nearly as impolite and immature as those on TL, what they lack in those characteristics, they more than make up for in sheer length, people abusing mod powers, and general anal-retentive assholery.
For all you TLers who enjoy browsing the ABL, that place is for chumps. Go read some of the wikipedia talk discussion archives.
Obvious places to start would be the flamebait articles: the Iraq War, George W Bush, Tibet/China/Falun Gong, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Stalin, Obama, Ron Paul, Israel/Palestine/Mideast, Ireland, Democrats, Republicans, Independents, etc.
but even innocuous articles like
Ceviche, Bread, Beer, Sausage, Bacteria, Compact Disc
can give you good laughs and merriment.
But... none of those compares to these downright fucking bizarre edit wars (all lifted from this page):
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enceladus_(moon)
An image on this featured article shows the tiny moon of Saturn superimposed on a map of the British Isles, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands Great Britain and Ireland, Luxembourg, and the North Sea. Cue edit warring, accusations of vandalism, and full protection of the article.
Aeris vs. Aerith
The Final Fantasy VII character was introduced to English audiences in 1997 as Aeris, but her name changed to Aerith in later appearances. Was the first name a misspelling? A mistranslation from the original Japanese pronunciation? But that's how it was when it was first released in English so that makes it her official name. But the later appearances are official too right? But she was known as and referred to Aeris for years, so that makes it the common name. But she's been going by Aerith since 2002, so now that's her common name. Many edit wars, page moves, and lengthy discussions later, the page is at Aerith Gainsborough and when mentioning her first 1997 appearances, she is called Aeris. All other appearances are called Aerith. With every title in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII using Aerith, the warring and discussions seem to have ended. The lengthy discussions are archived at Talk:Aerith Gainsborough/Name debate archive (page size of the archive is 113kb).
Potrero Hills
The Potrero Hills are "a range of low hills on the western edge of Richmond, California". They're pretty unremarkable; there happens to be a Chevron oil refinery there. But is it the "Chevron Richmond refinery" or the "Chevron Richmond Refinery"? An on-and-off edit war over this detail roils for months. After an exasperated (if excitable) administrator goes to the length of fully protecting the page, the war spills over onto Potrero Hill, San Francisco, where it is now being "debated" whether the disambiguation tag at the top should say "For the Potrero Hills in Richmond, California, see Potrero Hills" or "For the bluffs in Richmond, California, see..." or "For the minor mountain range...". (The page has now been moved to Point Potrero for some reason, with additional disambiguation options appearing at Potrero Hill, San Francisco...)
Nintendo Wii (this one was really bad because several Nintendo employees were editing, all of whom were probably being paid in some part to edit this page, and they couldn't agree amongst themselves what to write)
Is this article about "Wii" or "Nintendo Wii"? If it's "Wii," should it be called just "Wii" or "the Wii"? Or maybe "Nintendo's Wii"? Does it rhyme with "We" or "Wee"? Should "Wee" link to urine? Is "Wee" slang or a euphemism for urine? Is it a British or International word for urine? Is it even worth mentioning in the article at all? (not to mention "wee" as a synonym for "small", or "diminutive") Just some of the hard-hitting issues that provoked in excess of 1500 edits in the space of two weeks – long before the console was even released, and shortly before a massive war breaks out over "non-official external links" that leads to a huge strawpoll to end the issue, and continuing debates over whether the official or unofficial names of the console (according to official Nintendo policy, the console is called the 'Wii', not 'Nintendo Wii') and its accessories (for example, the "Wii Remote" aka "Wii-mote" aka "Wiimote") are more commonly used and which ones should be mentioned in which articles.
Beijing Capital International Airport
Never mind what the airport's web site says, our nationalist pride is more important! Let's crank up those numbers! (Also seen on Toronto Pearson International Airport, Kochi, and many others.)
Bollywood films
Let's inflate the earnings of our films, and deflate the earnings of everyone else's. But wait, they're doing the same thing. Can anyone tell the real story? (See the histories for individual films, such as Paglu, Shotru, Khokababu, etc.)
WWE No Mercy
Three-way edit war (or "three way" edit war depending on interpretation) over whether the phrase "Fatal Four Way/Fatal Four-Way" contains a hyphen. This riveting debate, so important that violations of WP:3RR occurred, resulted in the page being fully protected for a month with the protector declaring it the lamest edit war they had ever seen.
And a bonus
Two months of edit war on whether the page should say "[[Harry S Truman|President Truman]]" or "President [[Harry S Truman]]" (plus the same with several other presidents).
(bonus points if you can figure out which page that came from)
