From:
Fastfission <fastfission(a)gmail.com>
I've been defending the presence of [[Category:Pseudoscience]] for
some time now as a sociological category, but it occurred to me today
that one could imagine all sorts of circumstances in which it would
seem hopelessly POV to have category labels of this sort (one could
include things like [[Category:Hoaxes]] or [[Category:Conspiracies]]
or whatever in this, if those categories exist), even if their actual
articles (and even category pages) were written in perfect NPOV. Does
the brevity of category labels make this impossible? I'm beginning to
think they might, and that these sorts of categories should be
converted wholly into lists. I wouldn't mind a [[List of Satanic
lies]] which clearly noted who thought they were and included
[[Evolution]] on the list. But I would mind having [[Category:Satanic
lie]] put onto the Evolution page.
Any input on this would be appreciated as I mull this over.
I've already seen categories used specifically for the purpose of promoting
a POV. For example, a few months ago someone added [[Muhammad al-Durrah]]
to the [[Category:Hoaxes]], and in response a [[User:Alberuni]] added [[Anne
Frank]] to the [[Category:Hoaxes]] I have no doubt neo-Nazis would be
repeatedly adding [[The Holocaust]] to the [[Category:Hoaxes]] as well, if
they were smart enough to figure out how to do it.
Unsurprisingly, the Arab-Israeli conflict is fertile ground for this kind of
issue. As an unsurprising example, [[Zionism]] has been added to (and
removed from [[Category:Racism]] more than once. Recently [[User:Yuber]]
went on a campaign of removing all sorts of areas controlled by Israel from
[[Category:Geography of Israel]], typically adding them to
[[Category:Geography of Syria]], apparently on the grounds that the these
kinds of Categories were not intended as an aid to the reader in finding
articles, nor should they reflect physical reality, but rather the should be
seen and used as a political statements about legitimate ownership of
territories. Both sides quoted the same policy to each other (""Unless it
is self-evident and uncontroversial that something belongs in a category, it
should not be put into a category"), indicating that the specific policy was
actually of little help in making these kinds of decisions.
Jay.
Indeed policy, unless intricately written to cover all situations,
will occasionally fail to be of much use in individual circumstances.
In problem instances, it is best to look at the individual case, and
have the majority of editors insist on common sense and a resolution
that comes closest to NPOV while being accepted by most.
Zoney
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