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Way way wayyyy back in college (fall 06 to spring 07) I used to edit Wikipedia on a regular basis.
While 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)
  
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+ Show Spoiler +ROFL
I did not see that coming at all. How is that even possible? How?
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TL mods have been having to deal with image bombs of people using feces in various ways lately
that's pretty nasty stuff
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ShadySands, just wanted you to know that you have quickly became one of the TLers I look forward to see post. Thanks for being so awesome!
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28094 Posts
On November 24 2012 16:45 Forgottenfrog wrote:
ShadySands, just wanted you to know that you have quickly became one of the TLers I look forward to see post. Thanks for being so awesome!
I second this 
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On November 24 2012 16:52 TheEmulator wrote:Show nested quote +On November 24 2012 16:45 Forgottenfrog wrote:
ShadySands, just wanted you to know that you have quickly became one of the TLers I look forward to see post. Thanks for being so awesome! I second this
Thank you <3
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On November 24 2012 15:45 Ooshmagoosh wrote:+ Show Spoiler +ROFL
I did not see that coming at all. How is that even possible? How?
Seriously lol WP has essays on how to interpret guidelines, guidelines on how to write essays, essays on how to write essays, guidelines on how to write guidelines, essays and guidelines on how not to mix up essays and guidelines... on top of 50 more essays and guidelines on how to write wikis.
almost like this movie
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sorry for the double post
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I love reading wiki wars. I learnt a lot about the French revolution and its French historiography thanks to that. Apparently, every single person who studied the period is either a crypto communist fascinated by mass murderers or paranoid royalist rewriting history.
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Haha, there's some really nice ones on that page. Found this one by just skimming it:
Flavor of Love
Should second-season winner "Deelishis" be credited as her birth name, Chandra Davis, or her stage name, London Charles? Months of IP additions and months of "IF YOU REVERT WITHOUT DISCUSSION, YOU'RE GONNA BE BLOCKED!" ensue. In the end, nobody got blocked and the dispute died down on its own, probably because both sides realized they were battling over a woman who willingly went on a reality television show to "fall in love with" Flavor Flav. Yeah, boyeeeeeee!
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LOL at "Aeris vs. Aerith." They refer to the same gosh-darned character; difficult to believe so many people can get into a fuss over that. It's like when Wizards introduced "Commander" last summer in lieu of the extremely popular EDH format in Magic: The Gathering. They mean the exact same thing, regardless of the "official" or "objectively correct name." Since last year, I've always harbored the thought that some idiot(s) have made a ruckus over it, haha.
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i dont understnand the first one. whats wrong with saturn's moon? and something about europe?
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United States5162 Posts
Thank you, Shady Sands. I just spent the break between DH semi final matches reading that page.
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On November 25 2012 01:32 cLAN.Anax wrote:
LOL at "Aeris vs. Aerith." They refer to the same gosh-darned character; difficult to believe so many people can get into a fuss over that. It's like when Wizards introduced "Commander" last summer in lieu of the extremely popular EDH format in Magic: The Gathering. They mean the exact same thing, regardless of the "official" or "objectively correct name." Since last year, I've always harbored the thought that some idiot(s) have made a ruckus over it, haha.
FF7 has a lot of people who obsess over it. Just look at all of the "BEST GAME EVER" talk. It seems to me that they refuse that there could possibly be a game which is as good as or better than it.
Not saying that every fan of FF7 thinks that it is the best game ever, nor that everyone who thinks that it is the best game ever obsesses over it.
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On November 24 2012 16:45 Forgottenfrog wrote:
ShadySands, just wanted you to know that you have quickly became one of the TLers I look forward to see post. Thanks for being so awesome!
Well said. I concur!
Still waiting for Beijing Blues though. 
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wikepedia...... you learn something new each time you check it.
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It's always fun to learn more stuff about wikipedia. Stuff like this and the unusual articles list just makes Wikipedia all the more awesome
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Is her name pronounced like "rolling" or to rhyme with "howling"? Rowling is on record claiming she pronounces her name like "rolling". An irate editor argues that this is a "British" pronunciation and the "American" pronunciation of her name should also be noted. This is slightly ridiculous as she is English, and therefore of course will pronounce it in an English manner. Cue endless spats on talk pages over whose arguments are "more cogent", and multiple reversions. Issue finally resolved (sort of) by very, very, very obliquely implying that she pronounces her name "rolling", rather than stating that that is how her name is pronounced. Edit war was brief, but, astoundingly, other people have since logged on and made the same complaint. Perhaps it rhymes with "Trolling"?
and the even better one:
Coraline (film)
Is it "jerkwad" or "jerk wad"? Made it to AN3 [36].
hahahaha I'll be lame if I continue on too stopping now
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This is hilarious, thank you, made my day!
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ok we all no 4chan mods have it the worst. I think what TL mods have going for them, is they have a handful of very vigilante mods. These few do a huge majority of the banning and then it seems very consistent in how most mods close threads is each of their respective forums.
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Haha, these are pretty hilarious, thanks Shady.
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Amazing blog yet again, wanted to drop in yesterday and reply but didn't get around to it. I've seen some of these wiki wars before, and it's ludicrous hehe
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So much behind the scenes in the wiki articles that I take for granted.
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TLADT24920 Posts
haha some of that stuff is such a good read lol. Thanks Shady Sands, amazing blog as usual
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This is still far from the worst. For my personal amusement, I tend to browse the "wikipedia portal" of my local wikipedia, which is the place where "request for comments" (public discussions and votings for things of such a basic importance such as spelling of latin words) and even "arbitration cases" (public lynches of unpopular editors) take place and that, THAT is something. People threatening each other with legal actions, establishing networks of deflamatory pages outside wikipedia, exposing each other's identities, creating legions of sockpuppets, faking evidence, abusing mod powers, manipulating witnesses. That place is like the deepest sewage channels where mafias are shooting each other in the dark, except for that it is public with a complete history.
I don't know if there is anything comparable on the English wikipedia, but I doubt it, because the relevant section is too big and all the gemstones are too dilluted, so I really pitty all of youj for not speaking Czech
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The last one should be titled Harry S. Truman [Former President, United States of America (insert term here)] 
On a serious note, I'm not sure if TL mods do have it easy. They sometimes have to almost pick a side by warning / banning one person who disagrees with another person and is a little rude about it - the other person gets to feel like they won if they receive no reprimand and this in itself can lead to animosity between users and / or admins.
What Wikipedia seems to suffer from is people who care way too much about details that mean exactly the same thing to anybody reading it. This is almost to be expected when you create an online encyclopedia that can be edited by registered users. TL mods have to act like school teachers breaking up fights between kindergartners over the screams of "he hit me first".
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Oh I remember years ago after clicking the random link to end up with a name of some teenager (probably) who described himself as SO HOT and MEGA COOL etc. he probably made it to throw something like "you don't know me, check from wiki" to someone, so I took a short time to edit in something about him defying the thermodynamics and shit.
I'm not sure if he ever saw the edit or if it was removed completely by mods before. I like to imagine the reaction of people who would have seen it.
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Shady Sands, you have just topped my list of 'favorite active posters', for this:
On November 24 2012 19:34 Shady Sands wrote:Seriously lol WP has essays on how to interpret guidelines, guidelines on how to write essays, essays on how to write essays, guidelines on how to write guidelines, essays and guidelines on how not to mix up essays and guidelines... on top of 50 more essays and guidelines on how to write wikis.
almost like this movie
This is my favorite film on many levels, and I think it'd be great if the rest of TL could be exposed to its satirical powers. You would probably write the blog better than I would.
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Heh...they runs a tight ship here at TL they does.
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EPT
