Talk:Icelandic Elf School

Page contents not supported in other languages.
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
WikiProject iconSchools Low‑importance
WikiProject iconThis article is related to WikiProject Schools, a collaborative effort to write quality articles about schools around the world. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page.SchoolsWikipedia:WikiProject SchoolsTemplate:WikiProject Schoolsschool articles
LowThis article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Untitled

do we really need an entire "Elf schools" category just for this article?

dab (ᛏ) 18:02, 15 November 2005 (UTC)[reply
]

Given that the entire article is unsourced either all of it should be removed or none of it, removing one small section without any explanation as to why this has been done is counterproductive.

Hideki (talk) 20:53, 11 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, I thought that my edit summary made it clear. Wikipedia has especially high standards for biographical content (see Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons. Unsourced biographical content that could be in any way controversial should be immediately removed. This is not about article quality, its about the issue of potential libel. Those last two lines ascribe a particular standpoint and possibly even a paraphrased quote to an individual without citation. That really is unacceptable with regard to this policy. I am therefore removing the material once again. If you can add a citation, it can be put back in, but otherwise its inclusion is a serious violation of wikipedia policy. Locke9k (talk) 21:18, 11 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Notability

It seems to me that the two external links basically establish notability for this subject. Locke9k (talk) 21:17, 13 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Both links are of fairly superficial and explicitly promotional nature. I would question whether they establish notability. HrafnTalkStalk(P) 03:44, 14 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
That was my first thought upon coming to this page also, but one of the links at least is to the overall Iceland site, so the site isn't really written by a fringe source. Its one page in a larger reasonably authoritative site written by Iceland's tourist board. The other page at least establishes that this is not apparently just a concoction of Iceland's tourist board but possibly has some broader interest. Its boarderline, but it seems good enough to me that wikipedia would be better served by keeping the page and adding more links over time than by losing the information. Locke9k (talk) 16:43, 14 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I was not questioning the verifiability of the information, merely the notability of it. Tourist boards will typically publicise many local attractions, many of which would not be sufficiently prominent to warrant an encyclopaedia article. Interestingly, as far as I could ascertain, the page in question is un-linked-to from the rest of the Iceland Tourist Board pages -- making it inaccessible without a Google-search. If the Iceland Tourist Board doesn't consider it to be prominent, should we? HrafnTalkStalk(P) 17:26, 14 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
The article is not that inaccessible. It also appeared on PR Newswire (see here). --Amanojyaku (talk) 02:22, 6 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I disagree -- when the article in question is linked-to nowhere on their own website, but relies upon you finding a press release elsewhere (or Google) to access it then it is "that inaccessible". HrafnTalkStalk(P) 02:45, 6 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
You do raise some good points, both in regards to the PR Newswire article and the Homemakers article. However, there are many more sources in the article now than just the two that were present when the notability issue was raised. Right now, there are two academic sources (Sontag and Anderson) and three newspaper sources (The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, and the Evening Standard) in addition to the sources that may be regarded as questionable. Do you still think the notability is in question? --Amanojyaku (talk) 15:42, 6 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
It is unclear from the links (one of which is merely to a GoogleBooks 'snippet view', the other to a registration-required catalog in Icelandic) what these "two academic sources" have to say on the subject. It is also unclear whether This is London Magazine has the same editorial standards as its parent, the Evening Standard. The Globe and Mail article is not listed in the GoogleNews archive, so its existence cannot be verified (let alone its contents). The third article was not published by The Guardian, but rather by Dawn (newspaper) (though the latter would seem to be a RS), and only gives the school a brief, two paragraph, mention. HrafnTalkStalk(P) 16:27, 6 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
You do not have to register with Gegnir to do a search. Try entering "Katrin Sontag" into it, and you'll see her thesis come up. (You can also find it mentioned here.) If you search for The Globe and Mail article on LexisNexis, you should be able to find it easily. --Amanojyaku (talk) 22:49, 6 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Dumping readers into the front end of a search engine isn't really appropriate -- nor is a link implying that the material in question is available online, when only a catalogue listing is available. In any case, as that material is not available online, it is not possible to ascertain what depth of coverage it gives to the topic. Also as an unpublished MA thesis, its reliability is in question (MA theses generally are subjected to a lesser degree of scrutiny than ones for a PhD -- there's extensive discussion on the topic at
WP:RS/N). I don't have easy access to LexisNexis, so will have to find other ways of verifying that article's existence. HrafnTalkStalk(P) 04:42, 7 April 2009 (UTC)[reply
]

The notability may be borderline here... if deemed appropriate, a shortened version of this article's content could also be merged into

Huldufolk#Tourism
. As far as I can see, this Elf School is behind widespread urban legends to the effect that "in Iceland, they hire elf experts before building a road". From the icelandreview.com link,

"The Tourist Board goes on to describe how when new roads are constructed, the Public Roads Administration is careful not to disturb elf habitation. The Iceland Tourist Board quotes Viktor Arnar Ingólfsson, author and civil engineer at the administration saying: 'When Native Americans protest roads being built over ancient burial grounds, the US listens. It's the same here. There are people who believe in elves and we don't make fun of them. We try to deal with them.'"

(emphasis mine). It is the job of tourist boards to exaggerate the quaint folkloristic features of their respective countries. I think it turns out that this "elf expert for road construction" thing happened once, and then under public ridicule and suspicions of nepotism, but I'd have to dig for a source for this. --

dab (𒁳) 12:34, 29 April 2010 (UTC)[reply
]

According to The Icelandic Road Administration (ICERA) and the Belief in Elves by Viktor Arnar Ingólfsson, there were three incidents in which the Icelandic Road Administration had to deal with claims of elf settlements, and the involvement of mediums was mentioned in two of them. I don't think it's accurate to say that the Elf School is behind this because some of those incidents took place in the 1970s, and the Elf School opened in 1991. --Amanojyaku (talk) 18:16, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

homemakers.com a reliable source?

This appears to be a fairly lightweight & 'fluffy' 'lifestyle' website. Is there any indication that it has any editorial standards or stature to to speak of? HrafnTalkStalk(P) 16:34, 5 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The author, Wanita Bates, has also appeared on CBC Radio talking about elves in Iceland. The
Wikipedia:Reliable Sources page states that part of what makes a source reliable is "their authors are generally regarded as trustworthy or authoritative in relation to the subject at hand." While I don't know much about Homemakers magazine or their editorial standards, shouldn't the reliability of the author count for something? If that's not enough to make it a reliable source, then I would think that the article from The Globe and Mail alone should suffice. --Amanojyaku (talk) 01:47, 6 April 2009 (UTC)[reply
]
(i) The show blurb does not list Bates as an 'acknowledged expert' or similar on the topic, merely as a "freelance broadcaster". (ii) Even this very low level of regard is only from a single radio station (a medium not known for high editorial standards), not "generally". I would therefore state that this does not come even close to demonstrating that this article meets
WP:RS. HrafnTalkStalk(P) 02:50, 6 April 2009 (UTC)[reply
]

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Icelandic Elf School. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at {{

Sourcecheck
}}).

This message was posted before February 2018.

regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check
}} (last update: 18 January 2022).

Cheers.—

Talk to my owner:Online 09:01, 30 June 2016 (UTC)[reply
]

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 2 external links on Icelandic Elf School. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018.

regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check
}} (last update: 18 January 2022).

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 13:16, 1 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Icelandic Elf School. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018.

regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check
}} (last update: 18 January 2022).

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 07:57, 25 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Icelandic_Elf_School&oldid=1207689255"