\Just some blue sky thinking: Our neutral point of view policy has aroused a fair bit of discussion at [[WP:NPOV]] recently, and this has got me thinking: We've all seen arguments where people keep arguing that this is "POV" or someone is being "POV" where in normal English we'd just call something an "opinion" and note that someone has an opinion on something. Indeed, the made- up term POV is bandied around usually to mean something along the lines of - you are wrong, I am right, and because it is a NPOV issue, the point is non- negotiable, which isn't a very good place to start from if the issue is to be resolved. Plus far too many people read NPOV as equating to "no point of view" as opposed to the real requirement, which is to write from a neutral viewpoint. My blue sky thinking (which I don't claim to be a panacea, just an interesting thought) is why don't we rename the policy page [[Wikipedia:Neutral viewpoint]] and make the shortcut link to it [[WP:NEUVIEW]] (or [[WP:NEUTVIEW]]). It goes without saying that the underlying concept behind the policy would remain completely unchanged - just the name of the page would change - plus it would enhance people's perceptions that it is about requiring a neutral viewpoint, rather than no viewpoint, or neutrality more generally: it would help define the policy in positive terms and (and perhaps I'm going too far here:) ) may help stop content disputes escalating in scale and viciousness.

Just some blue sky thinking: Our neutral point of view policy has aroused a fair bit of discussion at [[WP:NPOV]] recently, and this has got me thinking: We've all seen arguments where people keep arguing that this is "POV" or someone is being "POV" where in normal English we'd just call something an "opinion" and note that someone has an opinion on something. Indeed, the made-up term POV is bandied around usually to mean something along the lines of - you are wrong, I am right, and because it is a NPOV issue, the point is non-negotiable, which isn't a very good place to start from if the issue is to be resolved. Plus far too many people read NPOV as equating to "no point of view" as opposed to the real requirement, which is to write from a neutral viewpoint. My blue sky thinking (which I don't claim to be a panacea, just an interesting thought) is why don't we rename the policy page [[Wikipedia:Neutral viewpoint]] and make the shortcut link to it [[WP:NEUVIEW]] (or [[WP:NEUTVIEW]]). It goes without saying that the underlying concept behind the policy would remain completely unchanged - just the name of the page would change - plus it would enhance people's perceptions that it is about requiring a neutral viewpoint, rather than no viewpoint, or neutrality more generally: it would help define the policy in positive terms and (and perhaps I'm going too far here:) ) may help stop content disputes escalating in scale and viciousness. Kind regards Jon (jguk) --------------------------------- Yahoo! Messenger NEW - crystal clear PC to PC calling worldwide with voicemail _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l(a)Wikipedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l