Wikipedia:Lamest edit wars
 | This page contains material that is kept because it is considered humorous. Such material is not meant to be taken seriously. |
| “ | What mighty contests rise from trivial things. | ” |
| — Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock | ||
Edit warring is believed by some to be important, possibly due to the historical regularity and frequency of the occurrence of these wars. A careful and scholarly study of available archeological evidence has even suggested that edit wars may have recurred on a regular basis going back all the way to the beginning of recorded history, even before the advent of proper writing circa 2001 C.E. (see Wikipedia). In some earlier instances of edit warring, dating back from before the good old days, participants would simply brandish their swords and fight a battle, or later, their guns and fight a duel.
In modern times, physical combat has been outlawed and replaced by the careful citing of
Guidelines on how to create lameness
 | This section is intended as humor. It is not, has never been, nor will ever be, a Wikipedia policy or guideline. Rather, it illustrates standards or conduct that are generally not accepted by the Wikipedia community. |
Some discussions are born lame; some achieve lameness; some have lameness
The best way to begin a lame edit war is to change a large number of articles based on your interpretation of minutiae in the
Guidelines on how to add an entry to this guide
If you want to add a "lame edit war" to this page, keep the following in mind:
- It must have been an actual edit war. Discussions on talk pages, even over trivially lame details, are not "edit wars" and are, therefore, NOT suitable for this page: we want to encourage such rational debates between users/viewpoints (as opposed to actual edit warring). Note that pithy quotes on talk pages may be suitable for Wikipedia:Talk page highlights.
- It should truly be amongst the lamest edit wars. Not just garden-variety lame.
- Unless a participant is banned for their part in the edit war, do not give the names of participants or link to their userpages. People have lapses in judgment, and some end up edit warring; they shouldn't, however, be stuck with that for the rest of their on-wiki careers for no reason. This is absolutely not the place for harping over someone's past editing.
- Be careful to avoid even the semblance of taking sides in the war. If one version was more or less accepted afterwards, it's OK to note that, but the fact that an edit war occurred means that neither side was "in the right all along".
- Be bold! If you feel that an edit war was truly lame, add it! You don't need to ask on the talk page. The lameness of it should speak for itself. Of course, editors with a more experienced eye for lameness may disagree with your claim to the "lamest", which may just result in yet another lame edit war!
- Note that the no original research and verifiability policies are meant to apply to the article namespace, not necessarily on pages like this in the Wikipedia (project) namespace. This is intended for the community rather than your average readers. Humorous, insightful commentary is encouraged here.
Ethnic and national feuds
People
Chopin
Was
Ányos Jedlik
He is considered both by Hungarians and by Slovaks to be the unsung father of the dynamo and electric motor. But what was his true ethnicity, Hungarian or Slovak? At one point, the score in this heated battle was 16 citations to 4 in favour of the Hungarian side, with the Slovak side being handed both {{Dubious}} and {{Verify source}} tags. It appears that the dust has settled and the Hungarian side won, but at the cost of nine citation numbers immediately after "Hungarian".
Bee Gees
Are they a British or an Australian group? How about Manx? Tempers flared to the point of an RfC to settle the disruptive behaviour in 2017. Artefacts resulting from years of edit-warring have resulted in this helpful comment in the "origin" section of the infobox: PLEASE, DO NOT ADD ANYTHING IN THIS FIELD TO AVOID EDIT WARS. The most recent revision side-steps the issue and simply says "The Bee Gees were a musical group". (Or is that "was a musical group")?
Freddie Mercury
There was a feud that was going on for a long time on this one concerning Freddie Mercury's true ancestry. Is he the most famous Iranian rock star? Indian? Parsi? Azeri? You'd be surprised how many people get this annoyed, to the point that it is still a hotly contested item over there. Just one example can be seen here. Oh, and this one, like all the others, had its share of random vandals, people leaving unmarked anonymous insults, and gnashing of teeth. Let's just say for now he's a Parsi whose parents originated from India! Just don't even think of suggesting he's "left" Queen or is an "ex-member" of the band, though, or you'll really get people's hackles up...
...in 2018, a new edit war cropped up on Freddie Mercury's song "Love of My Life" - who is the song about? Mary Austin? A gay lover? Somebody else? It still flares up again, again and again. Jeez, why can't we just all sing along?
Ivana Miličević
But whence came this great beauty? Is she a "Bosnian actress of Croatian descent/ethnicity" or a "Croatian actress"? Should she be called American without sourcing because she's resided in America for nearly 30 years? Is she "Bosnian" because she was born in Sarajevo or "Bosnian-born" because Bosnia did not exist as a nation when she was born there? Go ahead and edit the article and see how long your version lasts before someone reverts you!
Jennifer Aniston
Is she American or American-born? Is she Greek-American? Is she English-American? Is she Greek-and-English-American? Does she need all-those-prefixes-in-front-of-her-nationality-American? Did Kiriakis mastermind the entire affair?
Franz Liszt
Born in what was then Hungary but is now part of Austria to ethnic German parents whose families had lived in Hungary for a long time, and we had all thought it was common knowledge that Liszt claimed Hungary as his homeland and Hungarian as his nationality. Er, didn't he? Cue the largest and most acrimonious war in recent memory! It was mercifully confined to the talk page, but what a talk page it was. What was Liszt's real name, Franz or Ferenc? (It was actually Franciscus.) If he was such a Hungarian patriot, why didn't he fight in the war of independence in 1848? If he was really Hungarian, why is his "Hungarian"-style music actually based on Romani music? If he really thought he was Hungarian, why did he spend so much time in France? Why couldn't he write better lyrics for the Krönungslied (which was actually Ungarisches Königslied)? What is the significance of the Chopinesque left hand octaves in Funerailles, Octobre 1849? What event of October 1849 was he referring to, the crushing of the Hungarian rebellion or the death of Chopin? Or was it the publication of Heinrich Heine's rude poem about him? Why couldn't he learn to speak Hungarian better? Did he like goulash? Could he dance the csárdás? The farce was compounded by the occasional appearance of anonymous trolls who insisted that Liszt was, in fact, a Slovak.
Jeremy Lin
Is he American or American-born? Is he Chinese-American? Is he Taiwanese-American? With Chinese and Taiwanese Chinese-Taiwanese and Americans Mainland Chinese and Taiwan Chinese Real Chinese and Chinese who had forgotten their ancestors Freedom fighters and threat to humanity Mao Zedong worshippers and modern Chinese "
Nicolaus Copernicus
Was he Polish, German, or Prussian? Or did he have no nationality at all that bears mentioning? If Copernicus were around today, he might have suggested that he would be satisfied to be remembered as an astronomer, but we will never know. Was he ever married? What is his middle name? No one knows exactly. Whether this edit war will spread to the page on his memorial on the periodic table is unknown.
Nikola Tesla
Born of Serbian parents in a part of the Austrian Empire, which a short time later became a part of the Hungarian half of Austria-Hungary and is now in Croatia. He eventually became a naturalized citizen of the US. So was he Serbian? Croatian? Austrian? Austro-Hungarian? Istro-Romanian? Jewish? American? Martian? There's even a specific sub-talk page just for this! You decide! But don't forget to leave an edit summary saying how pathetic it is to choose any other version.
P. G. Wodehouse
Who said the
Raven Riley
Is this porn star Italian? Native American? Puerto Rican? Cypriot? Does she have Indian blood? Who cares? But make sure that, when you change it, you don't even think about citing any source; please feel free to insult whoever put in the previous ethnicity. IP editors: be sure to insert multitudes of her different "real names", with no sourcing whatsoever.
Werner Herzog
Born in Germany, supposedly of a German mother and a Yugoslav father, and raised in Bavaria, Germany. Does that make Herzog: a) Croatian or b) Serbian? How about the fact that his relatives live in Bosnia-Herzegovina? Use edit summaries to publish interviews that you conducted – or heard rumors about. Mirrors and forks are great sources too. After consulting a printed source, it turns out that it was the mother who was from Croatia. Ouch.
Saladin
Biographers who knew him said his family was Kurdish. But was he a Kurd, Arab, Turk, Persian, Armenian, some combination of these, or something else? Were his father and uncle Kurds, or Arabs, or Kurdicized Arabs, or Turks, or Kurdicized Turks? Does it depend on the ethnicity of his mother, about whom we know literally nothing? He definitely spoke Arabic, but did he speak Kurdish too? Or Turkish? He was born in Tikrit, so does that make him Iraqi? Syrian? Mesopotamian? Kurdistani? If he is ethnically Kurdish, is the Ayyubid dynasty that followed him a Kurdish dynasty? Does modern Kurdish nationalism have anything to do with the Kurds of the 12th century? (This spills over into various articles about the Ayyubid dynasty too.)
Milla Jovovich
Is Милица Наташа Богдановна Јововић/Milica Jovović Serbian/Montenegrin or only Serbian? Montenegrin became the official language of Montenegro in 2007 and received a new standard on 10 July 2009, but it has been promoted by the Montenegrin community since 2004. Montenegro legally seceded from Serbia and Montenegro in 2006, but Milla was born in Ukraine in the Soviet Union in 1975 to a Russian/Ukrainian mother and father of Serbian (Serbian/Montenegrin?) extraction when Serbia (Serbia and Montenegro?) was still in Yugoslavia. Where do you stand?
U2
Is U2 an "Irish band" or simply a band that happens to be from Ireland, since two of their members were born in the UK? Many discussions have taken place over the course of several years as whether "U2 are an Irish rock band" or simply "U2 are a rock band" should be included in the text. Edit wars continued back and forth, and at one point the article even read "U2 are an Irish and British rock band" (which didn't last very long). A similar compromise could have been "an Irish rock band with two British members". And this was in addition to a debate on whether "is" or "are" should be used! Casey Kasem may have foreshadowed this edit war decades ago when he offered his first impression of U2 early in their career: "This is bullshit. Nobody cares. These guys are from England and who gives a shit!" Eventually, a heated discussion took place for over two-and-a-half weeks that resulted in at least one editor getting blocked and many more getting warnings, to eventually come to the conclusion that U2 are, in fact, an Irish band. (At least for now.) And why did nobody even edit war over to use "is" or "are"? What is life?
Nelly Furtado
Is she Canadian or Portuguese-Canadian? Editors ruthlessly argue over the formalities of citizenship and nationality. Which country's laws of citizenship should be used? Apparently, she was born to Portuguese parents and has released albums in Portuguese, but "she was born, lives, and works in Canada." Accusations of xenophobia are made. Much like reality television, this could get nasty. Confusingly, she has a star on Canada's Walk of Fame (for Canada) and was awarded Commander of the Order of Prince Henry (for Portugal), extending the edit war well into real life.
Andy Murray
Is this Grand Slam-winning tennis player from Scotland, (or Great Scotland) the UK, or Great Britain? Despite the compromise in the lead of calling him both Scottish and British, users and IPs don't realize that they are talking about the same place, so every year, when Wimbledon comes around, you can always see an edit war or talk page arguments about the subject, and like tennis, the final result of this edit war will never be known. Mainly going down the line of Murray called himself Scottish. Murray is anti-English and British after the media misinterpreted a joke with Des Kelly and Tim Henman in 2006 so therefore he must be Scottish. We can't have "Scottish" in the lead; he doesn't represent Scotland, he has to play for Great Britain. Any of which gets shouted down by the other argument and goes round and round all summer until a regular editor reverts it back to the "consensus compromise". Of course, consumers of the British press will be aware that, to those south of the border, Murray is British until he loses a match, at which point he reverts to Scottishness. But the truly lame thing on this page is that's not the only regular edit war. The page also sees an argument of whether Murray was born in Dunblane or Glasgow.
James Clerk Maxwell
Was his nationality Scottish or British or both? Should the infobox in the article list him as (1) British nationality or (2) Scottish nationality and British citizenship, or (3) Scottish & British nationality (no citizenship) or (4) no nationality and citizenship? Users and IPs relentlessly argue over the formalities of nationality & citizenship in more than 27,000 words of discussion. Editors then adopt a strategy to argue over which of the versions should be in place until the discussion resolves the questions, but it remains a mystery as to whether they did so expecting that the questions will never be resolved.
George Michael
Was he Jewish through his maternal grandmother or never at all? People who claim his grandmother was Jewish quote an L.A. Times article wherein George Michael himself claims that "His maternal grandmother was Jewish but married a Gentile and raised her children with no knowledge of their Semitic heritage. This was during World War II, and 'she thought if they didn't know that their mother was Jewish, they wouldn't be at risk,' Michael said." They also claim that it should stay in the article because being Jewish (ethnicity) and practicing Judaism (religion) are two different things. The opposition claims that George Michael was simply confused with the name of his grandmother, Daisy Angold Young, and mistook Angold for a Jewish surname. One of the opposition found genealogy for George Michael's grandmother leading back to 1828 in London. The same person linked an article talking about Christmas songs written by Jewish people on an interfaith support website that claims Michael being Jewish is an internet myth. All this arguing led to mass edit warring, accusations of Jews and non-Jews trying to white-wash history, and anti-semitism. The dates on the talk pages span from 2/10/07-12/20/08, 6/25/11-1/11/13, 12/30/16-1/5/17, and 10/19/17-11/14/17. Three of the many examples of 3RR are here:[1], [2], [3].
21 Savage
How many nationalities does he have?
Rajni Kanth
There was a dispute on the order and necessity of transliteration of the famous actor Rajni Kanth's names into languages like Marathi, Hindi, and Kannada. The people for the inclusion and giving a higher priority believed that the actor has significant history in that state of India, as well as sufficient fan-following to merit a transliteration, while the editors from Tamil origin were of the opinion that they would be surrendering their most prized possession. The talk page had been bubbling with so many threads on this singular issue. In 2011–2012, a consensus was reached after an RfC: All the Indic language scripts would be replaced with the IPA for such articles.
Places and other things
Liancourt Rocks
No, this is not the title of an album by the band Liancourt, but a group of sinking volcanic rocks that has been claimed by both Japan and Korea since really, really long ago. [4] Evidence of ownership for either side rests on hard-to-read decaying pieces of old paper. This is not a silly dispute as the rocks have important economic and military value, yada yada yada. Serious Japanese or Korean Wikipedians may even choose to make these rocks their place of residence (living there not required!) to bolster their case. This article extensively documents every little factoid that could possibly indicate ownership by one country, with each, of course, having a countering statement. Newspapers and internet forums like 2channel are part of the discussion, yet everyone claims their POV is NPOV. As properly befitting this major political issue, most edit summaries begin with "rv ..." Luckily, at least the title of the article has been settled on ... or has it? See also: Liancourt Rocks dispute.
Association of British Counties
You'd have thought Counties of the United Kingdom would be a fairly uncontroversial subject, but no – this insider outsider pressure group involving ninety-two eighty-six UK counties (that doesn't involve Government policy) is guaranteed to bring out the red mist every once in a while. One thing's for sure, the edit warring on this article is far from over ...
The "British Isles"
Is this phrasing acceptable? Does it geographically include the entire Northern European archipelago; or is the term inherently anti-Irish? Should it always be "the UK and Ireland" instead? Campaign-like warring removals and reversions on nearly any article containing the words 'British Isles' have resulted in topic bans, grueling skirmishes replete with sock warriors, and general misery over the thing. No consensus has truly emerged as to an ideal term; or even if the existing one is really a problem or not.
Ceviche
Was this marinated raw fish delicacy invented in Peru, or in Ecuador? Or maybe Mexico, Polynesia, Spain, Chile, Granada, Argentina...
Londonderry
Should the article on this city in
Enceladus
An image on this
Export House, that internationally renowned tower block in Woking
Multiple back and forth about whether the local nickname for the building is the bat building or the B.A.T building (from
Florina and other towns in Macedonia (Greece)
Edit war about whether the alternative name Lerin is Macedonian, Bulgarian or South Slavic (which covers both Macedonian and Bulgarian).
Fustanella
Who first donned a frilly
Caesar salad
Was this tasty salad invented in Mexico in 1924, or in ancient Rome? Is it named after Caesar Cardini or Julius Caesar? Is it spelled Caesar, Cesar, César, or Cesare? If you add tomatoes is it still a Caesar or is it something called a "Letchworth salad"? A slow-motion edit war stretching out over one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven years is surely the best way to find out.
Grand Theft Auto IV
Is
Hogenakkal Falls
Are these beautiful waterfalls on the Kaveri River located in Tamil Nadu – or on the border between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka – or in Tamil Nadu on its border with Karnataka? Or is it really the Cauvery river, and Hogenakal Falls? Do a dispute over water usage, and a separate dispute over access to an island below the Falls, have no bearing on this, or do they prove that the location of the Falls must be on the border? Whatever you believe, be sure to bring a (Google) map to the debate, and point out that your opponent's sources are not RS or NPOV!
Hummus and friends
Hummus: they love it in Israel, so shouldn't it be in Category:Israeli cuisine? Or is it a purely Arab food that the Zionists have illegally occupied?[5] After a related skirmish on Za'atar, the ingredients were listed in alphabetical order, but was this all part of a shrewd Zionist plot? Don't be silly, came the response: and anybody who removes the Hebrew name from the first sentence is a racist vandal.[6] Meanwhile, back at Hummus, an attempt is made to replace a mention that the Oxford English Dictionary says that the word entered English via Turkish with a reference to the Greek name for the dish. Finally, Tabbouleh saw action, this time mercifully free of Arab-Israeli connotations; instead, the question was: can we call this dish a part of Levantine cuisine, or is the very term "Levantine" a European colonial plot to divide the great Arab nation?[7]
In the meantime, another attempt is made to expunge the Turks from description of the traditional Greek (or maybe Arab) dish of pita (or is it pitta?), while controversy bubbles as to whether a photo of an Israeli falafel house constitutes "Zionism".
Conclusion: Tasty snacks in the Middle East are hilariously politicized. As of September 2022[update], the talk page for Hummus states: "The article Hummus, along with other articles relating to the Arab–Israeli conflict, is currently subject to active arbitration remedies."
Lake Michigan–Huron
Is it a lake or is it just a name? Or is it a system? And if it is a system, how is it distinct from the Great Lakes system? And if it is just a name how can it be the largest lake? [8] If it's not a lake, then is it one body of water? [9] Or is it a lake just hydrologically? Should it be called a lacustrine entity instead? Is this a category error or definitional attribute? Or is there simply no such entity? [10] And is notifying any
National House Building Council
Why lay bricks when you can edit bits? The headquarters of this British organisation are located in
Pavlova (food)
Not the dancer, but rather the tasty antipodean dessert, which was invented in Australia, New Zealand, Australia, New Zealand, Rabbit Season, Duck Season, fire!
But surely this is just Western propaganda. The great Russian physiologist,
Šarplaninac
Does the Šarplaninac (Yugoslav/Illyrian shepherd dog) originate from Kosovo, Albania, Serbia and/or Macedonia? Nobody can agree, but even flags are being hoisted at this point in the infobox.
Sea of Japan
Should it be called the Sea of Japan, the East Sea, or even the East Sea of Korea? Are both names valid, and if so, should the article be named Sea of Japan (East Sea) or Sea of Japan / East Sea? Or should it be the actual most common English and international name Sea of Japan (East Sea), parentheses and all? Should the dispute page be called the Sea of Japan naming dispute, or the Naming dispute over the body of water between Japan and Korea and the Russian Far East? Given the existence of other names meaning "East Sea" in other languages, should East Sea redirect to the disambiguation page or to the "body of water bordered by Japan, Russia and Korea"?
Siena College
Which unincorporated (and thus unbounded) hamlet of the town of Colonie north of Albany, New York, is this small Catholic liberal arts college in: Loudonville or Newtonville? The college's website says Loudonville, but how can we trust it when the Colonie Town Hall just across US 9 uses Newtonville for its address? Discussion reaches 30,000 words, reverts spill across all three articles, two get protected, an informal RFC is opened and one editor briefly retires.
Hata clan
No one believes the Hata clan of Asia are in any way Jewish. Yet an edit war still erupted over how to say that, with the book ref from respected author Jon Entine stating the fact that all sides (and sane people) would agree on, right there at the bottom of page 117.
Vipera palaestinae
Snakes from the Middle East are hilariously politicized too! This one is found in Syria, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, and either "Palestine" or "the Palestinian territories". Users have been edit-warring for six years now over how to describe it. The opinions of the snake itself on the political status of Palestine are unknown.
Szlachta
Can the
Names
English names
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? 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? She was known and referred to as Aeris for years, so that makes it the common name, but she's been going by Aerith since 2002...
With every title in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII (2003) using Aerith, the warring seems to have ended. The lengthy discussions are archived at Talk:Aerith Gainsborough/Name debate archive (page size 113kb).
Avengers (comics)
Should there be a separate page for
Barbenheimer
The double-feature
C#
In the name of the programming language C#, is that # thing (
Clippit vs. Clippy
It looks like you're trying to argue on Wikipedia. Would you like some help? You know that paper clip from Microsoft Office in 1997? Of course you do. But what was his name? Extremely obscure Microsoft publications, and extremely obscurantist Wikipedia editors, provide ammunition to both sides. The wrong name is obviously a result of citogenesis: but which was the true name and which was the false one being citogenesized? Forty thousand bytes of debate took place throughout August 2023. Ultimately, consensus was found to include both names, meaning everyone was right (or everyone was wrong, depending on how you look at it).
Clover (creature)
The creature from the movie
Compact Disc
Compact Disc is a tradename, and therefore is capitalised. But the logo says "Compact disc", and the term is now used as a generic term for compact disks or compact discs, depending on where in the world they are. Everyone calls them CDs (or maybe CD's). So, where to put the article? Passions have been raised on this compelling topic on the article's
Devils Lake (North Dakota)
Shockingly, there are multiple locations in the United States with the name "Devils Lake" with and without apostrophes. A very heated war broke out here regarding which one should be featured, whether a disambiguation page was needed, even over the usage of the apostrophe – eventually literally degenerating into "my lake is better than yours!" Solution: RENAME THE FREAKIN' LAKES!!!
Eagles (band)
Does the name of this band include the definite article? Is it "Eagles" or "the Eagles"? The band's name is "Eagles", yet all former and current band members talk about their tenure with "the Eagles" in published interviews and on the official website. From the very first sentences of the band's biographies on Allmusic, Rolling Stone, and The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, we can see how the world outside WP writes about them. Despite these facts, every "tequila sunrise" there appears an odd and concerted effort ([13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]) to erase the... "the" from all instances in the article, (even spilling into a band member's article [22][23]), leading to awkward "bizarro-speak" that even the band members themselves would surely laugh at. Someone needs to tell Don Felder to change the title of his book, because apparently he was wrong.
Eris (dwarf planet)
Was Eris named after the Greek goddess Eris or the Greek and Discordian goddess Eris? Does it matter that the IAU and discoverer Michael E. Brown referenced only the Greek aspect, even though the referenced mythological event was identical with The Original Snub? Is mentioning Discordianism POV because it gives the religion undue weight? Edit war results in loss of good article status and temporary article locking (but it's now a featured article, hurrah!). Hail Discordia! The edit war was resolved by not actually mentioning what type of goddess Eris is. As of 22 August 2023, the article refers to the Greek goddess as the source of the name, but mentions Discordianism as the source of the planetary symbol. See also: Pluto and Ceres (dwarf planet).
European Robin
A
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!
G4techTV Canada
Does the name of a Canadian TV channel, originally an offshoot of namesake
Fossil fuel for reciprocating piston engines equipped with spark plugs
Should this substance be called 'gasoline' or 'petrol'?
Finally, while not trying to pour fuel over the fire, it should be noted that in Arab countries (its birthplace, after all), and a lot of Europe, people call it "benzine".
Gender of God
Or is it "Gender of god"? How about "Gender of Gods", gotta remember those damn pagans. Or is that "Gender of gods"? Is "sex" more appropriate than "gender"? Is god/God/gods/Gods appropriate at all? How about (d/D)ivine entit(ies/y) ... or (s/S)upreme (b/B)eing(s) ... or some mix of all the above? Meanwhile, this doesn't account for religions with no explicit sex (or is that explicit gender?). We haven't quite decided yet, but rest assured, whilst some silly people are trying in vain to reach consensus, those with the power are proving their point with reverts. There have even been threats of ArbCom.
Silent Hill (video game)
Alessa was captured, but just how captured do you have to be to be considered "captured"? That "forced medical attention" makes all the difference in the world, so why would we need the word "captured"? While playing the game, a user might get the idea that a character implies something, so does a subtle wink at the camera mean something entirely different; something that could affect the whole plot and our own pride, for going with sourced material? It mattered for some, obviously, as a massive edit war broke out about a few words here and there and the war would be still going on, had it not been for the fact that administrators did some shallow digging and discovered that the instigator of the edit war was a famed blocked user who has been discovered to create no fewer than 23 sockpuppet accounts.
Heather of Silent Hill 3
The protagonist from
Should there be disambiguation notices on the respective articles of the
Thankfully it seems like that this debate did not flare up again with the release of Halo 4.
Hillary Clinton
Should it say Hillary Clinton or Hillary Rodham Clinton in the infobox? This long-running edit war since 6 June 2015 has led to two full protections, which at the same time led to the loss of an indefinite semi protection after one expired. This also led to a RFC which stopped the warring. Wait, it's Hillary Diane Rodham now?!
Interstate 75
Is the southern terminus of Interstate 75 in
Lady Jane Grey
Was she really a Queen of England? Should her page be at
Libertarian socialism
Various supporters of the US Libertarian party (founded in 1971) argue that they own the meaning of the word "libertarian", that placing it next to "socialism" is a contradiction in terms, and hence that libertarian socialism (described circa 1850) cannot possibly have existed. An edit war and request-for-deletion war ensues.
J. K. Rowling
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"?
Then again, rhymes themselves are dangerously POV.
Nobel Prize in Economics
Should this article (and other articles and templates that mention this award) use the common name of the award, the official name, Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, the even more official name, Sveriges Riksbanks pris i ekonomisk vetenskap till Alfred Nobels minne, or perhaps a compromise name, Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics? The
Richard Kyanka
An unseemly brawl over whether the article should name him "Richard Kyanka" or "Richard Charles Kyanka". At least the IP editors insisting on the insertion of the middle name provided good verifiable sources.
Missing Sun motif
Is it a collection of
The Pope's title
Is he the Supreme Pontiff or just the Bishop of Rome?
Richard Neustadt
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).
Once Upon Ay Time In Mumbai Dobaara!
Should the name of this Bollywood gangster film be
Panthera pardus tulliana
Is this nearly extinct leopard subspecies "tulliana"? Or is it "saxicolor"? One editor apparently thinks the old name of "saxicolor" is the only valid one. Threatens to "hack the page", sic their "IT team" on it, and "continue the edit war forever" abound. Also refers to everyone who disagrees as "racist". Had 91 revisions to the article in three days, until finally semiprotected.
Pluto
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For decades regarded as a
Potrero Hills
The
Sega Genesis and Sega Mega Drive
Is Sega's 16-bit console the Genesis or the Mega Drive? Which one is the proper name for the article? Or should it be called the Sega Fourth Generation console? The article has been moved from one name to the other multiple times, there is an FAQ and a "Falsehoods in the FAQ" discussion on the issue, and the war has spilled over into
Scotland
Is Scotland a Constituent country (linking to constituent country), or a Country within a country (linking to constituent country), or a Country (linking to constituent country), or Country (linking to country), or a Semi autonomous subdivision of the United Kingdom, or a Semi autonomous constituent subdivision of the United Kingdom, or a Semi autonomous subdivision of the United Kingdom, or a Home Nation, or a Nation, or a Kingdom, or a Part, or a Province, or a Region, or a combination of any of the above, or none of the above?
There have also been similar edit wars on pages about England, Northern Ireland and Wales. Following in the fine tradition of truly Lame edit wars, the conflict has spilt over into unlikely places – for example, cities twinned with Scottish cities have had flag icons repeatedly switched between the Union Jack and that of Scotland, with collateral damage seen on Colin McRae and Chris Hoy (whose page during the 2008 Olympics saw both the Union Jack being removed/added from nationality and switching between being British and Scottish).
St Pancras International
What name should Wikipedia give to the article about the railway station in London from which direct international passenger trains depart? Should it be primarily given the historic, shorter, simpler and everyday "St Pancras" or the (mostly) official, longer, more formal and more descriptive "St Pancras International"? Should the UK convention of calling a railway station "X railway station" be overturned in favour of "X station"? For that matter, as "St" is an abbreviation, should it have a full stop (I'm not joking)? All rather lame as they all redirect to the article and the two most popular variations are bolded in the lead anyway. Multiple moves and a stupidly long, long, long talk page court case (complete with "exhibit A" and various chums) ensued. As of 2011, the feud seems to have quelled for the time being.
Star Trek (I/i)nto Darkness
Is it "Into" or "into"? A simple capitalized letter led to, as xkcd neatly summed up, "Forty thousand words of debate", before suggesting the "compromise" solution of "~*~ StAr TrEk InTo DaRkNeSs ~*~". Here's what the horrifying talk page looked like when the xkcd comic was published. A summary of the results was necessary to keep things sane. And that's over three months before the film's opening. Starfleet representatives have neglected to comment.
State Routes
Should articles for U.S. state routes use the format "State Route xx" or "Route xx (State)" or something else (where xx is the route number)? There were numerous edit battles and huge debates over official terms versus common vernacular and over uniformity versus state individuality. Some advocated for the
Straight Outta Lynwood
For this CD by "Weird Al" Yankovic, a dispute about whether "outta" should be capitalized spawned lengthy threads on the admin noticeboard, as well as accusations of abuse, and page protection. Arguments focus on whether "Outta" is a preposition, whether it's relevant that it's not shorter than five letters, and whether the way the title is spelled on the actual CD is more important than our manual of style. Until a naming convention change, Straight Outta Lynwood may be SOL (or SoL).
Cornelius Vanderbilt
When a vandal struck and a good user reverted all but one of their edits, an edit war ensued over whether Cornelius was nicknamed "The Ass" or not. Another good user stopped the short edit war by adding a comment about the missed vandalism.
Tuatara
That odd little reptile from New Zealand, no wait, it's a diapsid, no it's a reptile, no it's a higher animal, reptile again, higher animal again, reptile once more... an amniote (??) The drama unfolds ... but the tuatara itself just doesn't care. Oh yes I do!
Her Late Majesty
Must a queen deceased for over a century still be styled here "
"Local girl makes good"
Pet views on royalty again, mostly the same parties warring – but this time, aligned contrariwise. Could an American woman who made an ex-king her catch keep the title she was bestowed by the marriage … or is the "she stole our king" attitude a sufficient reason to revert her (posthumously) back to her second husband's surname,
Wii
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.
William of Orange
Was this the name of one King of England and also of some totally obscure minor characters in the mists of history – or was it actually the name of two important and well-known Protestant Heads of State, etc? That became the object of a dispute over a
There was an animal that was also referred to as William of Orange, but fortunately it is a pigeon, an animal that generally symbolizes peace, so the edit war and participants did not harm this unlucky pigeon (and also the fact that it was the only non-human called William of Orange on Wikipedia as of this edit war).
U.S. Post Office
Many post offices in the United States are known as "U.S. Post Office, Podunk Branch" – unless of course that should really be "United States" and not "U.S." Which one is better? More accurate? More respectful? (Respectful?) Resolving this involved an edit war that dragged in sources ranging from the National Park Service to the U.S. United States Congress. Whoa nelly Nellie.
Involving other languages
Bozen-Bolzano
This city in North Italy has two official names,
Gdanzig / Dańsk
Tsushima Basin
Is it important to know that Korea has been preparing to officially register the name "Ulleung Basin"? The ocean feature is known both under the Japanese name Tsushima basin and under the Korean name Ulleung basin. There is also lots of disagreement which name is the more commonly used name in English for a place that pretty much nobody knows. (Also see the related lame edit war for the Land making up Tsushima subprefecture below and the related edit war concerning the Liancourt Rocks above.)
University of Sydney
Does this university have a Latin name, Universitas Sidneiensis, and should it appear in the infobox? Is checking old book stamps in the university library's store rooms "original research" or even "research"? Is the evidence for the name from a primary source or a secondary source? The battle eventually fizzled when everyone stopped caring.
2006 FIFA World Cup
In Swiss Standard German, "ss" is used in place of the ligature "ß". So should the German name use "Fußball" or "Fussball"? Despite the fact that even the German version of the page wasn't consistent, many editors were convinced that they knew best, and the edit war still lives on. See also Voßstraße below.
Voßstraße
Edit war over which name to use:
Dates
2006 Atlantic hurricane season
Should a tropical cyclone that formed on December 30, 2005 and lasted until January 6, 2006 (
2007 Atlantic hurricane season
Does a storm forming before June 1 mean the whole season becomes considered as having begun, when the official warning centre (National Hurricane Center) says otherwise and that it "begins June 1st"?
Ann Coulter
Edit war over whether she was born in 1961 or 1963, settled at 1961 after some damning evidence was found.
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
Was it released in 1988, or '89? Was it released straight to video before hitting the theaters? If so, does that count?
Casio F-91W
Was this watch released in 1989, or 1991 as the name suggests?
Death by Stereo
Was this band officially formed in 1996 or 1998?
December 25
Should we or should we not list the birth of
Jamie Lynn Spears
Was she born in 1991 or 1992? After years of being born in 1991, her publicist slips up and accidentally mentions she is 13 years old (in 2005), and all hell breaks loose.
Jennifer Lopez
Born in 1969 or 1970? Even after a detailed explanation in the age fabrication article for 1969 was provided, many were still sure it was 1970.
Jimmy Wales
Early in Wikipedia history, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth (or pecked seed from the bottom of their cages), Jimbo recorded his own birthdate in the annals of the Wikimedia Foundation as well as the article talk page. Then, in 2007, he changed his mind and used oversight tools to "unsign" his original edits. An edit war ensued over original research and whether Jimbo should be allowed to revoke his announcement of his own birthday, resulting in not one, but four secondary sources being tacked on to the date.
Mountain Meadows Massacre
Ongoing arguments and edit wars over whether to include the word "Friday" in the date of the event.
Nancy Reagan
Was she born in 1921? Or 1923? (This also came about as a result of age fabrication) After days of editing, does anyone really care THAT much?[32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37]
Ned's Atomic Dustbin
Was their independent EP The Ingredients released in 1989 or 1990?
Pennywise (band)
Did they release their independent EP
Slayer
Did the band form in 1981 or 1982? Some sources (like Metal-Archives.com) list 1981 as the date, but the booklet of the box set Soundtrack to the Apocalypse says they formed in 1982.
Suffer (album)
Was this
Robin Williams
Was he born in 1951 or 1952? The problem comes from the fact that a single biography says 1952 while hundreds of fans from a fan site say 1951. One expert vs. hundreds of amateurs. Who's right, David or Goliath?
Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Date delinking
Should a year appear as 2009 or 2009? Six months of edit warring goes through three requests for comment and culminates in a full arbitration case. The Arbitration Committee even finds it necessary to enact a temporary injunction. The 6-month arbitration case ends with 19 principles, 47 findings of fact, and 32 remedies.
Numbers and statistics
André the Giant
Was he 7'1" (216 cm)? 7'4" (224 cm)? 6'10" (208 cm)? Was his height even consistent during his entire career? Is this in reference to his actual height or the height which promoters billed him at? Did his actual height decrease in his final years due to the effects of acromegaly or due to back surgery? He was tall, just leave it at that.
Baltimore
Is the city's climate subtropical or continental? Are there a couple snowstorms a year, or several? Do some winters bring less than an inch of snow, or only a trace? How often does it get below 10 °F (−12 °C) or, for that matter, 5 °F (−15 °C), or even 0 °F (−18 °C)? Is January's average low 29 or 23 °F (−2 or −5 °C)? And just which weather station most accurately describes Baltimore's climate? These seemingly easily verifiable facts have been the subject of a slow-motion edit war for many months, with occasional language-parsing jockeying for position (for example, "However, winter warm fronts can bring brief periods of springlike weather, while Arctic fronts drop temperatures into the teens" vs. "However, winter warm fronts can bring periods of springlike weather, while Arctic fronts can briefly drop temperatures into the teens") continuing to this day.
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.)
Harry Chappas
Listed at 5'3" (160 cm), admits to being taller. Is he really 5'5" (165 cm)? Or 5'6" (168 cm)? Is an uncited claim valid for the latter? Sockpuppeting follows over a matter of one inch.
Chicken, Alaska
Every so often, tempers flare up over the bot-created "demographic statistics" added to the encyclopedia back in the Dark Ages (2002, to be exact) and the "Wikipedia = The Story of Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody" stance adopted by many editors towards
Cyclone Larry
It is widely acknowledged that Larry was a Category 5 storm on the
Death Star
Is it 120 km (75 mi) or 160 km (99 mi) in diameter? Even 900 km (560 mi)? How shall they word that? Is the hyperdrive class three or four? Who really cares? George Lucas apparently doesn't. Sure, HE's not the one stuck with the life-or-death decision of picking the right caliber torpedo to blow it up. But to a Rebel pilot, it's very important! This is war, after all.
Falkland Islands
Before it became a featured article in July 2014, for four and a half years tempers flared over this article. Not surprising, considering all the controversial topics in play: their disputed status between the UK and Argentina, their naming as Falkland or Malvinas, coastal, fishing, and mineral rights, a reasonably recent war, et cetera, et cetera. But who would have guessed that the most controversial issue would be whether to list distances with miles first and kilometres second, or vice versa?
Football World Cup
August 2005 edit war asking: who finished third in the
2010 FIFA World Cup
The infobox lists the four top scorers with five goals each: Forlán, Müller, Sneijder, Villa. Or was it Müller, Villa, Sneijder, Forlán? List in alphabetical order, or in order of FIFA's Golden Boot award where assists and playing time are tie-breakers? The fight continues more than a year after the players went home. Couldn't one of them just have scored another goal and saved us the trouble?
Hard disk drive
How big is that hard disk drive, exactly? Discussion on this point took over 160,000 bytes (or over 156
while this was resolved. Not that you can now figure out how a hard drive works from this article, in spite of all the editorial effort expended.Heights of presidents and presidential candidates of the United States
Is the 45th
iPad (3rd generation)
Should 4G be included when referring to LTE even though it technically does not meet 4G requirements?
PlayStation 4
Here's a penny for your thoughts: should our given retail price for this video game console, US$399.99, be rounded to the nearest dollar and listed as $400, despite being technically incorrect and sources stating otherwise? A smaller dispute also erupted over which prices should be displayed, at all.
Rey Mysterio, Jr.
Is he 5'2" (157 cm)? 5'3" (160 cm)? 5'5" (165 cm)? Did he debut at 5'4" (163 cm) and later grow to be 5'5" (165 cm)? Is he actually 5'6" (168 cm)? Should the official WWE website be taken as accurate despite its common practice of increasing heights and weights for entertainment purposes? What about heights as they appear in video games? This edit war, which was strongly contested due to the many conflicting sources, led to the bizarre compromise of listing his height at 5'4½" (163.8 cm) with the text "We have come to a compromise between 5'2" [157 cm] and 5'5" [165 cm]." thus throwing out all sources and making a claim based on middle ground rather than accuracy ... which, as of 9 February 2008, has been supplanted by 5'6" (168 cm) again.
Preteen
Are they 8–12 years old? 9–12? 10–12? 8–13? Even 17 years old? Webster says something different from Oxford. American Dictionary says otherwise. And what is the deal with people typing in all caps?
"Stayin' Alive"
Is the
Street Fighter character articles
Drawn-out revert wars over the correct heights and weights of fictional characters such as
TNA World Heavyweight Championship
Is
Transponder (aeronautics)
7500. Four simple numbers that got an add/remove/add/remove/consensus-add/remove-anyway/ADD edit war ongoing, in slow-motion and, perhaps, still ongoing on this page. What caused all the "squawk"ing? The fact that 7500 is the emergency code you put in a transponder when your aircraft has been hijacked. Although the code is public information provided by the Federal Aviation Administration and available in any student pilot's manual to be grabbed off the shelf, IP editors keep removing it from the article. Because, apparently, would-be hijackers use Wikipedia as their only source of information on aircraft, and would recognise the code when the pilot entered it, whereas it could be entered without recognition otherwise, or so the IPs claim. One even left an edit summary saying "Deleted reference to hijack code for secutity [sic] reasons. (Yes – I know it's available other places ...)". Consensus keeps the code on the page, joined (after yet another well-meaning IP removed the code) by an admin admonishment in an editnotice.
WrestleMania III
Was the attendance of the event in question 78,000 or 93,178 – or is it really 75,500? Is
WrestleMania 23
And because all wrestling feuds deserve a disappointing rematch, a nearly identical dispute erupted regarding the true attendance for this WWE event, which may or may not have set the all-time record for a particular sports arena that had existed for four years. The debate included insults, blocks, and an editor arguing that Dave Meltzer is not a reliable source for Dave Meltzer. Also included was the question of whether a statistic ending in 7 can be trusted. It ended with the WWE's claim being left alone for now, until the next exciting installment of Editmaaaaania!
Yao Ming
Just how tall is this famous Chinese basketball player?
Spelling and punctuation
Spelling
Alumin(i)um
Researchers and producers of element 13 have variously called the stuff "alumine", "alumium", "aluminium", and "aluminum". Speakers and writers of American and Canadian English spell it "aluminum" (as does the
Avril Lavigne
Was her radio hit from her debut album, Let Go, spelled "I'm With You", or was it spelled "I'm with You"? Intense edit warring ensued, and continues, over this contentious matter. Many personal attacks and a request for page protection were also included.
Brazil
Editors constantly change spellings of the country name to Brasil, because this is the local name of the country. But since both pronunciations have the same sounding as z, but the correct spelling in Portuguese is s, Brazilians/Brasilians consider the z spelling an error. There have been heated debates about the spelling, saying it is American imperialism. Example of wild discussions of this topic here.
Coraline (film)
Is it "jerkwad" or "jerk wad"? Made it to
Colour
Many editors have made corrections to this word, even though both versions are technically correct. Much like honor/honour, program vs programme. Toe-may-toe, toe-MAH-toe.
Cougar and Cheetah
Should "Cougar" be capitalized? What better time to revert-war over this all-important issue than on June 11, 2007, when it is Today's Featured Article? The war over capitalization erupts again a few months later, this time simultaneously in Cougar and Cheetah, and leads to full protection of both articles.
danah boyd
She writes it as danah boyd. Some say that the official style guidelines say it should be written Danah Boyd; others say they allow for exceptions for the subject's personal preferences. Are the extant references using all-lowercase sufficient and sufficiently independent to allow the style guide exemption? Or are scientific publications by her and her colleagues biased and not admissable references? Cue extensive edit (and rename) warring ...
Alexander Dovzhenko
This Soviet Ukrainian film director is an example of wars over whether the first name of Ukrainians should be Olexandr instead of Russian Aleksandr or international Alexander.
e (mathematical constant)
In addition to the debate over whether or not it is "actually" a number, the page has seen a pagemove controversy between whether the article's title begins with the letter "E" or the symbol "℮" (which resembles the letter "e") due to technical limitations on article names versus a desire to avoid having to tag the article as {{wrongtitle}} or {{lowercase}}.
Eastern gray squirrel
Native species in North America where the dominant spelling is gray. Invasive species in the United Kingdom where they call it grey. Nationalistic tempers simmer for two years in slow and remorseless edit war after a content
Hannover 96
One "n" or two letters "n"? Filling up many talk pages and much time. In the discussion, an editor gripes that "it REALLY DOESN'T MATTER what the actual name of the article is".
Istanbul
It was
Metre or Meter
Through out the article's life there have been a total of three official move discussions to move the article from its current spelling Metre to Meter. These arguments have also often been made by misinterpreting guidelines or making up ones that don't exist . For example an unofficial move
Orange (colour)
A cut-and-paste move to the American spelling "color". A move back, and statements that Canada, Australia, and the rest of the colour-spelling world didn't matter because the United States spelled it color. Other attempts follow, with one attempt to move it to simply Orange to end the war. Similar wars over the correct spelling of the word "colo[u]r" have happened far more times than anybody cares to count.
Pittsburgh
According to the article on Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, "Pittsburgh is one of the few American cities to be spelled with an h at the end of a burg suffix. From 1890 to 1911 the city's h was removed but, after a public campaign, it was officially restored by the United States Board on Geographic Names." In the course of describing an event, namely Merkle's Boner, dated 1908, an author used the "Pittsburg" spelling when mentioning the Pirates' baseball team. A subsequent editor decided that this was a mistake, and changed it back to "Pittsburgh". Thus is created a cycle in which someone notes the edit history and reinserts the contemporary spelling, and the next editor assumes simple stupidity of the last and adds back the h. This new version of Merkle's Boner makes Pittsburg(h) the ping-pong capital of Wikipedia, and we will likely never get the "h" out of here.
Posek
Should a short shwa sound that almost nobody actually pronounces anymore in the plural form of this word be represented in the transliteration by an "e"? What about the one in the abstract "psak/pesak din" that people will naturally say whether the "e" is there or not? More than a dozen reverts both ways, two page protections later, and over ten pages of debate on the talk page, this question of immense import remains without consensus. At one point, The Great Apostrophe Compromise ("pos'kim" and "p'sak din") was proposed, but following its rejection as "[the] most rificulous idea", the "e"less status quo remains.
Potato chip
Should potato chips be flavored or flavoured? What is the provenance of the potato chip, America or Ireland? Four-user revert war on these important issues results in the page getting protected and listed on RfC. As a compromise, the chips became seasoned. And are they not talking about crisps, anyway?
Spice and Wolf
Much time has been spent on if the name of the wolf deity in the series should be spelled Holo or Horo. Beginning in January 2008, the war still continues eight years later into 2016. Sources have been provided for the spelling as Holo, but this continuously gets changed back to Horo due to popularity of the spelling in the anime fandom community. A lengthy discussion has occurred on the issue which would even make your Engrish teacher faint.
Sulphur
Should it be spelled the American or the British way? While the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry has ruled in favor of the American spelling, both variants make appearances in IUPAC's literature. It's still occasionally possible to find alternating spellings of Sulphur and Sulfur throughout the text of the Wikipedia article.
Visored Vizards
A Japanese author with a habit of inventing "foreign" names whose spellings harken more to H. P. Lovecraft than anything in English creates a group of characters called the vaizādo. The term is supposed to be some word in English, but nobody's quite sure what. Should Wikipedia refer to them by the archaic and wrongly pronounced but fan-favorite vizard, or by the grammatically awful but officially supported visoreds? Editors take the official line; thousands of IPs disagree! The article is eventually semi-protected, but it doesn't stop edit wars over the spelling on the dozen-odd other pages in which it appears.
Yoghurt or Yogurt
Does it need the 'h'? Is "Yoghurt" the "traditional" spelling, and is it American cultural imperialism to not have it as such?[41] Apparently, the "correct" spelling is worth fighting for – again and again and again. And again. Et cetera. For over eight years, before an RFC restored Truth and Justice to dairy products; for more news, see
The first time around, this controversy spawned a thread on
Punctuation
Berwick-upon-Tweed
A slow-moving edit war that centred over the use of ... an exclamation mark. As User:C12H22O11 exclaimed on the talkpage talk page, "Come on guys, you can't actually be having an edit war over one tiny exclamation point!" (Which of course would have been better punctuated as "Come on, guys: you can't actually be having an edit war over one tiny exclamation point!") There is also the matter that the "of course" in "Which of course" should be set off by commas, making it: "(Which, of course, would have been better punctuated as ...)" And we haven't even touched the unnecessity of the colon after "making it", as well (aswell?) as the missing period after the sentence. While we are at it, should it be punctuated as ...).", or punctuated as ...)".? And is "unnecessity" even a word? The possibilities are endless infinite endless (infinite) infinite (endless) endless-infinite Endless Infinite NEVER MIND.
Frequent date of birth to death punctuation
Frequent edit wars over whether there are spaces around the
Example: (January 24, 1943 – August 9, 1969) or (January 24, 1943–August 9, 1969
Gloria Ladson-Billings
An edit war over spacing, which led to the article being protected.
If... (film)
Should the ellipsis have three dots, or four? An edit war was not totally resolved when the article was renamed from the three-dot version to the four-dot version.
Kirsten Storms
Not quite punctuation, but the question nevertheless remains: should the discussion of Ms. Storm's arrest for DUI and subsequent no contest pleading be put in one paragraph or spread over two?
Nickelback
HUUUGE edit war over line breaks vs commas in a list of genres. Leads to a
Template:Wikipedialang
An edit war involving three
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
Russell T Davies
Or should that be
Newcastle High School (Australia)
How many students does the school have, 1,019 or 1019, and does "(With all one's might)" belong in the school's motto?
Mexican-American War vs Mexican–American War
Is the usage of
Wording
The band is/are a collective noun
One
- Angels & Airwaves: Forty-six reverts in one hour by two editors. The point of contention? Whether "Angels & Airwaves" is a band or "Angels & Airwaves" are a band. (British English requires "are", as the band comprises multiple people, while American English requires "is", as the band is a singular entity.) ALL-CAPS edit summaries laced with profanity and death threats liberally employed by one side. Stopped only after admin intervention, but resumed again two minutes after the 3RR block expired. Both get blocked for seven days, and one of them gets his block extended to eight days after stating he doesn't care as long as the other side gets a block of the same length. The other side keeps his seven-day block. (Feb. 2006) A similar debate occurred at The Smashing Pumpkins.
- Red Hot Chili Peppers: A multi-day revert war over the proper conjugation of the verb "to be" in the first line of the lead. See [44], [45], [46], [47], [48]. By the time we get to the next day, it has spread to the use of the definite article "the" in the same sentence: [49], [50]. Everyone talks with the authority of a grammarian. No one has any clue, quite obviously though. For non-English speakers this is particularly lame since the verb to be can be conjugated eight ways (am, is, are, was, were, be, been, being) – not fifty-plus as in most other Indo-European languages.
- Royal Family), the dispute over a single word still rages on.
Amy Dumas
Questions have arisen concerning the name of Lita's moves. Is it DDT, or Lita DDT? Hurricanrana or Litacanrana? Moonsault or Litasault? Powerbomb or Lita Bomb? Is the powerbomb even a finishing move, considering it's not used that often? Do you go by the games, by the announcers, or by WWE.com? After several arguments and many people exclaiming they will continue to change it back, a Fan Name section is created, listing the names fans have given her moves.
Aquarela do Brasil
Not so much an edit war as an editing armed standoff. Ask yourself: should this song be declared "written one pluvious night" or "one rainy night"? Ironically, "one" night was declared superior to the previous version, "in a" night. Pluvious actually won in a voting showdown, but when it was later changed back to rainy, nobody really cared.
Billy Tipton
Jazz pianist had a career spanning decades and was father to two adopted sons. Wikipedians battle for years because at the end of the musician's life the coroner reported that he she Tipton he[
Brudenell Social Club
Editors can't decide whether this venue is for-profit, or non-profit. Edit warring ensues.
Christianity
An edit war surrounded the sentence "Theological disputes about the correct interpretation of Christian teaching led to internal conflicts and Church authorities condemned some theologians as heretics, defining orthodoxy in contrast to heresy, the most notable being Christian Gnosticism." The questionable wording was the switching of the words "orthodoxy" and "heresy". The user preferring heresy before orthodoxy claimed grammatical accuracy and no meaning change. The user preferring orthodoxy before heresy claimed it completely changed the meaning of the sentence. This discussion can be found here.
Cleo Rocos
Cleo was Kenny Everett's sidekick throughout the 1980s. But was she best known for this? Cue increasingly aggressive back and forth ([51] [52] [53] [54] [55] [56] [57] [58] [59] [60]), semi-protection amid accusations of sockpuppetry, and the obligatory ANI thread. Perhaps she's now best known for edit warring. (See also David Gilmour for a similar theme – [61])
Conch Republic
Does the Conch Republic, the name assumed by Key West when it "seceded" from the U.S. in 1982, qualify as a "micronation"? For months, an edit war has progressed over this burning question. Supporters say the name is still used in tourist promotions, while detractors say the "Republic" was a joke protest, and the "Prime Minister" surrendered one minute later. Others say micronationalism is an incredibly silly concept anyway.
Cranky Kong
Was Cranky Kong the original Donkey Kong? Could it be the character in Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 games is actually his son? Or perhaps his grandson? Should we trust offhand comments made by a video-game character? Does being licensed by Nintendo make Rareware publications "official"? How official is the "Nintendo Seal of Quality"? To some people, these questions are a matter of life and death. (For the record, the Nintendo Seal of Quality was, as the name implies, a means of quality control related to the company's internal policy regarding third-party software. But it's still a lame edit war.)
Danish pastry
There was a kerfuffle over several sentences on this page. Is a Danish pastry a "variant of puff pastry" or merely similar to it? Should you describe a picture of one as "A typical Danish of Spandauer type with apple filling and glazing" or "A typical Spandauer-type Danish with apple filling and glazing"? Whatever the case, tempers got so frayed the article and the talk page needed to be protected, until everyone calmed down and settled for a nice cup of tea and a ... oh, hang on ...
Daylight saving time
Or daylight savings time. Or Daylight Saving(s) Time. Or Daylight-Saving(s) Time. You've never heard "saving" in the singular in your entire life? Send in the dualling (or is it duelling?) dictionaries. Either way, it's still dark at 7:00 AM and I'm tired.
The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu
Is this comic produced by
Derren Brown
Derren was shown convincing former unbelievers to believe in god, or should that be "God", or "the Christian god"? The revert war is over, since the article has been protected, but still the battle lingers on in the talk page.
Exclusive or
Clearly this article should be named
Exploding whale
Is the
Final Fantasy VIII
Week-long debate regarding the "Controversy/Criticism" section about whether or not Final Fantasy VIII has a "massive" fanbase or a "fanbase as large as the fanbase of Final Fantasy VII". Other wording issues were also discussed. Unfortunately, all options required that sources be cited. The article has since become a featured article.
Fistula
Fistulae are connections between two organs that don't normally connect, or is that "betwixt two organs"? In 2005 a patient and anonymous editor with a fondness for archaic spellings changed the wording for the many occurrences of "between" in the article every few months, prompting immediate reversions and comprising a large minority of edits to the article that year.
Fred G. Sanford
Furious edit war that leads to
Futurama
Was protagonist
Jeopardy!
An editor added the sentence "The conceit of 'questioning answers' is original to Jeopardy! and, along with its theme music, remains the most enduring and distinctive element of the show." After several people changed "conceit" to "concept", all being reverted by the original editor, a two-year long war broke out over whether the word, used in the context of literary conceit, was appropriate for an article about a game show, with the word in constant flux until someone just changed it to "notion". And then the sentence was deleted.
John Deacon
Is he an "English retired musician" or a "retired English musician"?
John Kerry
An edit war erupted over John Kerry's first Purple Heart award in Vietnam. Was it just a wound or a "minor wound"? Should wound itself be wikilinked? Was the injury "bandaged", or simply wrapped with "gauze"? Is Kerry's family background pertinent? The wound issue ended with the Rex071404 arbitration case and that editor being banned from editing the article for a year. One year later, the same edit war re-ignited, leading to another arbitration case and the permanent ban of said editor, who then departed Wikipedia. (See also Swift Vets and POWs for Truth)
Katie Couric
Is she an "
King George V-class battleship (1939)
This edit war is fast approaching its first year of existence, mostly a dispute between two users, but has drawn in other editors for brief periods. It started with disputed information on the guns, then moved on to repeated accusations of using weasel words, NPOV, original research, sockpuppetry, disruption of Wikipedia, and vandalism.
Leck mich im Arsch
An edit war over what to call
Limp Bizkit
Dispute over the ordering of the two terms used to describe the band. Is the group a
London Underground
Should the term "period" or "full stop" be used to describe a full stop (or period)? An edit war and heated discussion on the talk page broke out over this very issue.
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
In an article written in Commonwealth English and about a topic in the field of aviation, should "alternate airport" or "alternative airport" be used in the following sentence: "The extra fuel was enough to divert to alternate airports – Jinan Yaoqiang International Airport and Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport – which would require 4,800 kg (10,600 lb) or 10,700 kg (23,600 lb), respectively, to reach from Beijing."
? In the aviation field, the term "alternate aerodrome" (or "alternate airport" or "alternate airfield") is used globally to refer to the second airport/aerodrome/airfield selected in a flight plan if a landing at the planned destination cannot be made, see material published by aviation authorities in Europe (Eurocontrol), Israel (CAA). This use of the term "alternate" is consistent with usage in North America, where it means "taking the place of; alternative". In other English-speaking regions, and as second meaning in the US/Canada, the word "alternate" means "every other". This has prompted many editors to try, even after a wikilink and hidden note was added, to change the term to "alternative airport", which is not consistent with usage in the aviation field.
Mama's Family
Was Mama (Vicki Lawrence) "pro-active", "foxy", "clever", "cunning", or none of the above? Apparently this question is important enough to occupy more than thirty edits in one day.
Moons of Pluto
Active vs. passive wording: "
Nintendo GameCube
Has the GameCube been discontinued (thus it "has failed" to regain the market share lost by its predecessor, the
Pokémon: The Electric Tale of Pikachu
Was the manga published by Viz in a
Psephos
Is Adam Carr Ph.D, a Historian, or does Adam Carr hold a PhD in history? In addition to five reverts, also spawns thread on the Administrators Noticeboard.
Sophomore
An admin and a user edit war over a number of album articles over the use of "second" or "sophomore". Editing gets heated and eventually results in a block and a request for arbitration.
Spore (2008 video game)
Is Spore a
Squall Leonhart
Is Squall a hero or a protagonist? Many reverts between "hero", "protagonist", and variant forms of each ensue as an accompanying Talkpage debate weighs the definitions, connotations, and comparisons of the respective terms relative to Squall's role in Final Fantasy VIII; other Final Fantasy articles suffer collateral damage.
Switch?
The Price Is Right's "lamest" pricing game. Should it be said that it's "the only game that can be won by deciding to do absolutely nothing" or "the only game that can sometimes be won by deciding to do absolutely nothing"? After a few dozen reverts, a third opinion agreed that "sometimes" was redundant, leading the other user to remove the entire sentence claiming it wasn't really the only game that can be won that way after all.
Tifa Lockhart
Does Tifa, a character in a PlayStation game (Final Fantasy VII), have "ample
Tiger
A revert war on whether the tiger can properly be described as the "most powerful living cat" (complete with accusations that people were "tiger fanboys") gradually led to arguments about how tigers would match up vs. bears and crocodiles (oh my!), complete with another revert war about the inclusion of a YouTube video showing a tiger fighting a crocodile, eventually leading to the article being semi-protected. The debates about bears and crocodiles continue on the talk page.
Urban75
Is Urban75 a "left leaning" or "liberal leaning" site? A two-month argument on this results in hundreds of reverts, userpage vandalism, sockpuppetry & two separate
Fandom and fiction
24 (season 7)
Should Chloe O'Brian be close to the top of the cast list, or closer to the bottom? Is Tony Almeida more important, therefore should be closer to the top? Users and anons constantly reverted each others' edits over the position of the character. The war was eventually (bar one or two attempts) finished when the cast was organised by surname.
Adria (Stargate)
Is the language being spoken
Advance Wars: Days of Ruin
Is it a turn-based strategy game, or a turn-based tactics game? Apparently in an interview with the developers, the "s" word was used. But the back of the box uses the "t" word. One user cared so much about it that he resorted to sockpuppetry and was consequently banned multiple times. Although the user pops up every once in a while under another sockpuppet, the debate fizzled out.
Amerime
A term created to define American anime, Amerime was deleted as a neologism, then reborn, then deleted, then reborn, then deleted, and then stuck when the software jammed. It was then deleted and reborn again, at which point it managed a sufficient rally on the AfD to survive, roughly 18 months after the original was first posted; however, it has been moved to another location.
Baby (Dragon Ball)
Is this character
The Beatles
Actually waged at Template:The Beatles and Portal:The Beatles/Intro, was an edit war over the order in which the four members of the group should be listed. Should they be listed in the "traditional" order or in alphabetical order? And if you think that's ridiculous, edit wars over whether to identify the band as "The Beatles" with a capital T or "the Beatles" with a lower case t have gone on longer than the group's existence. One such installment of this saga was brought before the arbitration committee (by an administrator, no less) where it was quickly declared "silly". This monumental lameness was even the subject of an article in The Wall Street Journal!
Because You Left
A certain character who appeared before in the show has his name revealed as Pierre Chang, but while shooting a video uses an alias from previous episodes, Marvin Candle. Is this fact relevant enough to warrant inclusion? An IP seemed to think so, and the insistence on adding by one party/deleting by everyone else was described as "nonsense" on the talk page. To render it even worse, the IP went to complain in both the Lamest Edit wars page – this one and the original entry – [62] [63] [64] and the article's GA review (as his persistence was the only thing that prevented it from passing), before the page was protected.
In a frustrating portrayal of blind and ignorant persistence, the user (under a series of different IP addresses) continued his frankly tiring edit warring as soon as the page became unprotected. His first edit to the article was on the 3rd March 2009 and he has continued to war into May 2011.
The
Boxxy
After eight deletions and five restores, image drama, a deletion review, and an AfD, the important questions regarding this hyperactive 16-year-old on YouTube were faced. First, is the discussion about a meme with a girl, or a girl with a meme? Is she underaged, or pretending to be? Is she more important because we're talking about her? And most importantly, is this Guardian story a blog or a news article?
Stargate SG-1 (season 9)
Should the identity of the Daedalus class battlecruiser destroyed at the end of the
Daffy Duck
Did Daffy Duck father any children? Should the events of certain animated films be taken to have occurred in "real life" while others should not? Daffy to Wikipedia: "No comment". A Barbara Walters special is reportedly in the works.
The Devil Wears Prada
Not
Frank Iero
Page about a member of a rock group. This article has been subject to several long term, slow pace edit wars. One is about his height, of all things, with the number being changed several times a week. Another slow edit war is over whom he is dating/engaged/married to, and whether this GF/fiancée/wife is pregnant. (Considering how long this slow edit war has been going on, if she's pregnant it's one of the longest human pregnancies ever.) And a third slow edit war is over how to pronounce his name.
Gadsby (novel)
Ernest Vincent Wright wrote this novel as a lipogram, omitting the letter e. Should the article be written in the same way as an homage? Despite the facts that this would make the tone of the article bizarre, and that neither the full actual title nor the author's name could be stated due to containing four and three e's respectively (and, to avoid the disambiguation "novel", was at the very obscure early working title Gadsby: Champion of Youth), war raged on the talk page, and in the article for an exceedingly lame amount of time, with some warriors on the talk page even posting in lipograms (eliminating e does not a stronger argument make). At one point a few editors made an effort to eliminate the letter from the headers and the markup, leading to the removal of the Table of Contents, edit buttons, and reference tags. The caption to an image of capital and lowercase e's near the bottom of the talk page sums things up nicely: "This page needs more of these. Please give generously."
Garfield (character)
The cat who stars in the eponymous comic strip had been undeniably portrayed as male for 39 years. But then a satirist/troll changes the gender to "None" due to a quote by creator Jim Davis, and a war regarding whether the cat should be listed as "gender-fluid" ensued, being even covered by The Washington Post. (There was also a brief period where Garfield was listed as Shiite Muslim for unknown reasons during this war.) Garfield had only this as a response.
Godney
A lame edit war between two vandals, one pro-Britney Spears and the other anti-Britney Spears, on an article which has nothing to do with Britney Spears.
Goofy
Is the cartoon character an anthropomorphic dog or just an anthropomorphic animal?[65] Or a dogface?[66] Editors back-and-forth accusing each other of OR[67] led to an RfC with suggestions including "zoomorphized human" and "anthropomorphic character with both human and dog features".
Grace Kelly and Cher
Edit wars over whether each is a gay icon. Sources were given for Cher's iconic status, but not for Kelly's.
Homestar Runner
Are the official facts canon, or are they part of a universe? Should we even care?
House, M.D.
What's up with the lack of Asian diversity on the show and on medical dramas in general? Are you a racist for not wanting mention of this? Isn't
Iron maiden
A two-week revert duel (with accompanying Talkpage debates) over whether this should redirect to the
Jay Jay the Jet Plane
New episodes of the children's show begin with a "Jay Jay's Mysteries" segment whose featured characters include the dump truck Trekkie ... or is the name Truckee? Two anonymous editors change that single name back and forth as humanity weeps.
Jak and Daxter
Is the video game Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier canon to the main story, or is it a spin-off? The stating of standpoints, references, page protection and even a consensus haven't stabilised the article, and the four years of flip-flop edits continue.
Jimmy Wales
Did he found Wikipedia or co-found it? Does using current WMF press releases count as promoting a 'revisionist history'? Does it really matter all that much? And why am I asking you? Not surprisingly, those who actually were around at the time and know the answer stayed far away from this one. The casualty list has yet to be compiled, but no doubt editor egos will be among the worst hit.
Kanto (Pokémon)
A huge discussion broke out regarding the notability of a particular truck appearing in some iterations of the Pokémon series and whether the accompanying images fell under fair use. The article's talk page ballooned over ten times from 12,000 bytes to 140,000 bytes and spilled over onto several users' talk pages.
Krystal (Star Fox)
Revert war on over the contents of the
Link
Revert war over whether the Japanese word for "Link" should be transliterated as Rinku or Rinkū.
List of fictional ducks
You read that right; edit warring over nonexistent waterfowl. Page protections, admin interventions, accusations of vandalism and sockpuppetry fly like ... well, like things that fly, anyway.
List of Konoha ninja/Naruto Uzumaki
When a character casually notes that Naruto Uzumaki is just like his father immediately after noting that Naruto was also just like
Lucky Star (manga)
A very slow, and long-running edit war regarding the
Marilyn Manson
Every album has a title track. No they don't. Yes they do. Smells Like Children? Not an album. Live drummer? Studio Drummer? Ginger doesn't record drums. Yes he does. He hasn't been on an album in over a decade.
Micronations
Two self-proclaimed leaders of micronations in a lengthy revert war in this and other articles about the comparative value and notability of their made-up countries.
Mojo Jojo
A long running revert war that began in June 2004 and continued into August 2005 over whether categorizing a mad scientist – whose goals are to destroy The Powerpuff Girls, crush their hometown, and conquer the world – under Category:Villains violates NPOV. Fortunately, the category has since been moved and deleted.
Money (Pink Floyd song)
Sure, it's a song with an odd rhythm, but what exactly is the time signature? The band, which had no formal musical training, have said 7/8, most people say 7/4, experts will go as far as to say 21/8.
More cowbell
A single Saturday Night Live sketch generates a remarkable volume of strong feelings among Wikipedians, with a particularly lengthy debate over whether an animated GIF of the sketch in question is too irritating for inclusion.
Mudkip
A debate has lasted, more or less, since 2006 over whether the "So i herd u liek mudkipz" meme is notable for inclusion anywhere on Wikipedia and, if so, where. Looks like someone doesn't liek.
My Little Pony
Is Baby Cuddles blue or green? Is Fizzy blue or green? Editors resorted to uploading photos of their own ponies to debate the point, possibly indicating ten-year-old girls are more computer savvy than ever ... or perhaps
Pokémon Diamond & Pearl
Is it an RPG or is it a Console RPG? Or is it a fish! Who knows! Yet, oddly enough, no wars have occurred on the pages for the
Pwned
Slang term which originated from a typo (for "owned") displayed on a computer screen during an online multiplayer video game and is now the subject of heated debate as to its actual meaning. Does it mean to reduce your opponent to such a state that no actual words exist to express your dominance over them? Does it mean you possess "ownage" over them? Or does it mean to soundly defeat an opponent? Also, who invented it? What is the correct oral pronunciation of it? What is its
Spy (Team Fortress 2)
Is he French? Is he British? Is he Russian? German? Franco-Russian? South African? Algerian? Believe it or not, there was (before reveal of nationality) an extensive debate on where this (confirmed French) character class from the video game Team Fortress 2 inherits his accent from – despite having only a handful of spoken lines in-game at the time. To be fair, this was mostly the result of every other class in the game (except the Pyro, who is near-unintelligible under his her his her the her its their the gas mask) having a clear regional upbringing, whereas the Spy's accent was a more vague European one. However, nowadays, voice lines with the Spy speaking French are most prominent in the English version of the game (such as cries of "Mon dieu!"). At the very least, it proves that the Spy is good at his job of causing confusion, frustration, and panic (and everyone turning the world upside down to sort him out).
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Are
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Site of an edit war over whether Star Wars Episode III should be listed as the 'preceding film' in the infobox. Opponents argue that it's crazy to say a film released in 2005 'precedes' one released in 1977; supporters argue that it's equally crazy for a series to begin with Episode IV! After an
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and other Star Wars film articles
Revert wars over whether or not the credit list should duplicate the official credits at the end of the film, or be edited by Wikipedians to include uncredited roles. Both sides seem to feel they have the weight of policy on their side, but no one actually points to policies. Thankfully this seems to have eventually resolved itself, with an "official credits" section, and notes made afterward about uncredited roles.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Should it say "also known as Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens"? Is it officially an alternative title? Much edit warring and most of the talk page is used on this vital question after the premiere. Who cares what the film is about?
Susan Hawk
Was she in Survivor: Pulau Tiga or Survivor: Borneo? Considering both were in heavy use, one really shouldn't have precedence over the other (although Pulau Tiga was the term used for years before Jeff Probst introduced the term Borneo for the first season); in any case, the edit war between the older term and the newer term has gone on for months.
System of a Down
Are they alternative metal, or should they be on the list of nu metal musical groups? See the "mature" arguments at the talk page, such as YES, THEY ARE NU METAL, OK! And you know it, don't you?! This band also spawned a few more lame edit wars regarding two of its albums.
Tommy (The Who album)
Do you think it's alright to leave the boy with Uncle Ernie edit-warring on Wikipedia? By Pete Townshend's own admission, the plot for Tommy is not exactly straightforward and has been changed in various adaptations. Does the father kill the lover or the captain, or is it the other way round? When you come to Wikipedia, the edit warring's foreveeeeeeeeeer - ha ha!
Triple Crown Championship
Debate rages over whether the
Turn Left (Doctor Who) / The Stolen Earth / Journey's End (Doctor Who)
Several disputes over whether past companions should be listed as
Wild Arms (series)
Or should it be Wild ARMs (series)?
WWE Armageddon
A lame edit war erupted at the page for the then not-yet-aired WWE pay-per-view event over whether the match between The Undertaker and Mr. Kennedy should be listed second or third. The official website for the event had the match listed third, but since the "order doesn't matter", others continued to make it the second listed match. The ensuing argument led to the page being fully protected and spilled into the talk page, the WP:PW talk page and even the page for the following pay-per-view.
Personal involvement
Page-Ladson
- May 2018: righteous deletion
- December 2018: equally righteous reversion
- June 2019: another go-round
- 09 June 2019 Talk page(paraphrase unless noted):
- Creator of the article(aka Policy guy): Dudes, let's just settle this according to Wikipedia policy & stop the arguing 'on the merits.'
- Deleter: He found it in the '80s and deserves the credit!
- Reverter: Yeah, but she did a bunch of work on it in the 2010s and deserves the credit!
- D: Yeah, but she tries to 'bury' his work on it!
- R: No she doesn't!
- D: Yes she does!
- R: There's no call to shout!
- D: (actual direct quote): You apparently equate disagreement with "shouting".
- R: (also actual direct quote) internet etiquette holds that using a string of all caps is shouting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_caps Please familiarize yourself.
- Creator of
Pause ... breather ... no more substantive edits to the page itself (whew!)
Round 2 - featuring 1 new (anonymous!) editor along with the 'let's settle this according to the policies' voice from earlier
- 10 October 2021: back and forth and ...
- 11 Oct 2021 (paraphrase):
- Policy guy on Talk page: "he was a leader in the 2010s, too" isn't supported by the citations.
- (next two lines hearsay)
- Anonymous: But I am the "she" in question!
- Pg: Aha! In that case you definitely can't contribute here.
Pause ... breath -- Round 3 -- what? December 2021: Yet another opinion that the credit has been mis-balanced?
Daniel Brandt
Someone writes an article about him and he complains that he is a private citizen and
2007).Highgate Vampire, Talk:Highgate Vampire
You thought vampires did not exist? You thought vampire hunters do not edit Wikipedia? You thought two opposing factions of British vampire hunters (the "orthodox" Vampire Research Society and the "revisionist" Highgate Vampire Society, and let's hope these links stay blood red forever) would not clash on a Wikipedia article or its talk page? All I can say is – think again.
John Byrne
A somewhat controversial comic book artist who felt there were errors in his article and so blanked almost all the content without explaining what specifically the errors he was objecting to were. He raised the subject on his own message board and both supporters and detractors flocked to Wikipedia to join in the fight, resulting in numerous articles in blogs and other comic industry media about the ensuing conflict.
Suncrest, Washington
Constant reversion of
The Best Page in the Universe
The reason why external links sections are not web directories is aptly illustrated when the owners of two rival fansites, www.the3rdbestpageintheuniverse.com and www.thethirdbestpageintheuniverse.com, repeatedly replace the other's link with theirs. The link goes back and forth for weeks – as they leave no messages or edit summaries, few notice and none care. One uninvolved editor tries to add both, asking "Is there not room for both self-proclaimed third best pages?" – apparently not, as one is removed two hours later and the war continues on its merry way. Eventually yet another editor drops a train on all the spam, including that oh-so-vital link.
Vic Grimes
Lameness originating from violation of
WNRI
Should we mention the fact that the station's broadcast power drops to a ridiculously low wattage at night? Yes, it's a fact. No, I could LOSE MY JOB.
Politics
Israeli legislative election, 2015
Was the head of the
Joe the Plumber
Not since
Royal Burial Ground
Is it the burial place of the British royal family, or the Royal family of the Commonwealth realms? What about the Canadian Royal family? Or something else? An edit war involving at least six editors lasted over a month, through two periods of page protection, before consensus was reached: to leave the page as it had begun. For some reason, the inhabitants of the cemetery themselves appeared singularly unconcerned by the dispute, not seeming to care what One were described as.
United States presidential election, 1960
In a close race, John F. Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon 49.7% to 49.6%. What this dispute revolved around however was a slate of unpledged electors in southern states which after carrying 0.4% of the vote cast ballots for segregationist Harry F. Byrd who did not campaign for the office. Having outright won in Mississippi, casting a plurality in Alabama, and with a faithless elector in Oklahoma, did this entitle Byrd to a spot in the infobox? Generally candidates who won over 5% of the popular vote or carried a state have been included. Does being chosen by a slate of unpledged electors equate to winning the state? If so, should Byrd be listed as a Democrat, Independent & a Democrat simultaneously, Unpledged Democratic Electors movement, Unpledged Elector, Southern Democrat, or Dixiecrat? Should it be noted the electors were unpledged in the infobox? How about mentioning the slate of electors in the infobox but not Byrd? This edit war has continued since 2008 in some form with a shaky consensus against Byrd's inclusion.
United States presidential election, 2008
Is
Religion
Julia Gillard
If Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard says she does not believe in
- Update: An RfC actually did sort this out ... eventually: The religion field has been removed from all person-related infoboxes other than "religious leader". Whodathunkit!
External link wars
Derek Smart
Huge revert war over one external link critical of Smart. Discussion filled several talk pages, with each side accusing the other of POV, systemic bias, stalking, paranoia, bad faith edits and being lame in general. Escalated to a
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
A three-day-long war starting with this good faith edit which turned into an edit war as to whether it should be included or not, ending with this last revert edit. Even after talking on the article's talk page, and bringing the issue up on
Real Life Ministries
A slow burning edit war lasting over three months over the file extension of one link. Not the inclusion of the link itself – just its extension (.txt or .prt).
vBulletin
A huge edit war regarding the inclusion of external links. Should commercial sites be linked, should the section be this big, or should the external links section be there at all? These are some of the questions plaguing this article.
Lists
List of Copa Libertadores winners
Edit war over how a table should be formatted, which led to 46 reverts (23RR for both users) over the course of 14 hours.
Frank Rossitano
Edit war over whether a large, colorful list of truckers' hat styles worn by this fictional character should be included. Leads to page protection, allegations of admin abuse and sockpuppetry.
Korea Republic national football team
Edit warring over whether or not the list of South Korea's achievements in the World Cup should or should not merge the consecutive years when South Korea did not enter (and the same for when it didn't qualify).
List of Google Street View locations
Such a list was created in April 2008. Led to dispute over what locations should be listed, whether they should be only major cities, small towns too, and suburbs of major cities. Then the list was proposed for deletion. Survived the first AfD, then died on the second. Arguments against were that it was a directory, impossible to maintain, and that one day, as Google's goal is, would include the whole world. Made better sense when the service existed only in the United States. Now it's a redirect to the Google Street View article. Easy, right? Apparently not.
List of multiracial people
Are people who are
List of My Hero Academia characters
In January 2020, an edit war about whether the list of characters should also include short descriptions happened then was seemingly resolved. However, from May of 2020 to August of that same year, it picked up again, and because the edits fueling the war happened monthly instead of daily, the 3RR could not stop the edit war. What makes these wars particularly lame is that both the January and August wars caused the main instigators of both sides to flood the article's talk page (mainly in January) and dispute resolution noticeboard (in August) with blatantly uncivil behavior. Some examples include but are not limited to name-calling, stalking, and accusations.
List of numbers that are always odd
The number 3 was being considered as possibly being not odd. Page protection was needed to halt the heated debate.
List of virgins
Dispute about whether or not Britney Spears belonged on the list, eventually resolved in a definitive manner: maintenance of the list proved impossible and it was later deleted.
List of Virtual Boy games
Should the list have a pink background? Yes, this really happened.
List of Virtual Console games (North America)
Should
Panic! at the Disco
Should the band's genre be rock, pop, dance, emo, big beat, techno, punk, dance, techno, jazz, electronica, alternative, indie, etc. ...? Four talk pages of debating, arguing, and "discussion" later: and we have arrived on the conclusion of rock and dance (for the time being) and a disabling of editing by new or unregistered users.
Rainbow Gathering
Dispute over whether or not "alternative gatherings" should be included in the list of gatherings, leading to failed mediation, protections, blocks, and finally one party walking away from the whole project. Don't you want to know when your local subculture is gathering in a copse of trees?
Tripoli Rocketry Association
Should this group devoted to high-power model rocketry and related legal advocacy, the subject of a New York Times article headlined "A Cult of Backyard Rocketeers Keeps the Solid Fuel Burning", therefore be included in
Beer style
Should the article Beer style include a link to the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP)? A months-long revert war ensues over a single link.
Highest-valued currency unit
Is the
List of fictional badgers
What badgers are notable enough to earn inclusion? For over a year, there were inclusions immediately reversed, additions of maintenance templates, and rather fiery discussions regarding "badgerness" (including the phrase "the character is non-trivial and is a badger deliberately, for badger reasons"). The involved could be considered mad as a badger, or if another digging mammal is allowed, making mountains out of molehills.
List of catgirls
Is Hermione Granger a catgirl? She temporarily develops cat features following an incident in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, but does this mean that she qualifies as a quote-unquote "catgirl"? She is added to the list towards the end of June 2021, and nearly every single edit to the page through October is either removing or re-inserting her entry. No one attempts to justify either position; the talk page goes unused and there is not an edit summary to be seen. One brave editor attempts to begin a discussion on the talk page, but receives no response. Eventually the page is protected and a formal RfC is opened to address the issue.
Categories
Category:Recursion
Slowly edit warred over several years to include it in itself despite
Redirects and disambiguation pages
Redirects
corn
- RM, Maize → Corn, No consensus, 20 June 2007, Talk:Maize/Archive 2#Requested Move
- RM, Maize → Corn, No consensus, 21 February 2011, Talk:Maize/Archive 3#Requested move
- RM, Maize → Corn, No consensus, 11 August 2013, Talk:Maize/Archive 4#Requested move 3
- RM, Maize → Corn, Not moved, 22 June 2015, Talk:Maize/Archive 4#Requested move 22 June 2015
- RM, Maize → Corn, No consensus, 11 September 2022, permalink
... and a long list of protests going back 15–20 years.
iPod photo
With the release of the iPod classic, there was a lot of confusion on whether the new iPod is in the same line as the original iPod. Can a new product be "classic"? Should it just be part of the
%s
Should it redirect to Main Page as a shortcut for Firefox users? Or should it link to printf (where it serves as a shortcut to print text). How about transcluding the Main Page as a compromise? And isn't it because of printf that Firefox uses %s? Involved page protection, a vote, and an appeal. In the end, as User:This, that and the other observed, more than 64 KB of discussion was recorded over a redirect for a two byte title.
Malamanteau
After being featured in the webcomic
Disambiguation pages
Georgia
What do you get when
GNAA
Should the Gay Nigger Association of America be at the top of this
Lolita (disambiguation)
Phenomenally lame, multi-stage edit war at the disambiguation page for Lolita over the purpose of disambiguation pages. Is the
Palin
The August 29, 2008, announcement of Sarah Palin as the presumptive Republican nominee for Vice-President of the United States set off a firestorm at (among other places) the Palin disambiguation page (which had previously been edited three times since it was created nearly a year before). Should Palin redirect to Sarah Palin? Is Sarah Palin more famous than Monty Python member Michael Palin? If she's more famous now, will she continue to be more famous in the future? Should Sarah and/or Michael Palin be listed in their own section at the top of the dab page, or just on top of the list of other Palins, or should the sorting be purely alphabetical? Following a handful of polls and rampant accusations of bias, a consensus seems near, but who knows what the future will bring?
Talk pages
These are not about discussions on talk pages, but actual edit wars (as typified by reverting) occurring on talk pages.
Talk:Homosexuality in Singapore
Probably the first instance of revert-warring on an article talk page, where one editor accused another of using the talk page as an alternative soapbox for a POV agenda. The accused editor first tried to insert a list of unpredictable predictions, then when that didn't work, transferred it to the talk page, ostensibly for "discussion" when in fact none took place. That section was reverted back and forth numerous times, since no statute seems to govern behaviour in talk pages.
Talk:Lolicon
Edit war over whether the template at the top, announcing that the article was
Talk:Hurricane Ike/Importance
Should Hurricane Ike's importance within WikiProject Tropical cyclones be High, or Top? One editor (and later his sockpuppet) reverts against consensus many, many times. 40 KB discussion ends with real-life harassment.
Talk:Energy Catalyzer#Italian article deleted/redirected
Should a talk page section heading have a question mark? Two IP editors slow revert war over punctuation until another editor comes in and chastises them both for it.
Images
2020 Atlantic hurricane season
Several storms in the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season sparked edit wars over which satellite image should go in the infobox. These included an argument over which of two barely-distinguishable pictures of Hurricane Eta was the best quality. A more contentious debate emerged over two images of Hurricane Delta. Should the image of the storm at peak intensity be based on wind speed or barometric pressure? Does it matter if one image doesn't have the classic appearance of a hurricane? The editors involved could not even agree on whether there was a consensus, or which image was being used before the edit war began. The edit war was resurrected by an IP editor days later, opening up questions of possible sockpuppetry. One sockpuppet account was also involved in the talk page discussion. Hurricane Teddy fell victim to not one, but two edit wars, again debating which image best represented the storm at peak intensity.
2020 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania
A map of election results by Catholic Diocese: serious map or a joke gone too far? Was Catholicism relevant in the 2020 election in Pennsylvania, or wasn't it? Is a map of results by diocese useful, or does it provide no new information? Does the average person know what Diocese they're in? Do they know that about their voting district? How about the same map except in North Carolina? How about by State Patrols, is that relevant? After 83 separate talk page messages, multiple blocks for vandalism and edit warring, another block of the original editor for off-site harassment, and first semi-protection then—once that proved insufficient—full protection, the war seems to be over, with all deemed to be unencyclopedic images removed from the page.
Anal-oral sex
Is the concept of contact between an anus and a mouth complicated enough that we need a picture to explain it? Or is the concept too icky to put in an article? Do we need to use a hide/show box to protect our virgin eyes, despite the fact that similar practices have been repeatedly rejected as policy? Is preventing someone from seeing something really censorship? Would biology students find a picture of a disembodied mouth licking a disembodied asshole informative? Not one but two debates have been spawned at the Village Pump over this page. An alert editor noticed that the tongue isn't actually touching the anus, and therefore is not a picture of what the article is about. An edge-enhanced photograph from the Afrikaans Wikipedia was used instead, and a cease fire seems to be in effect.
Anal sex
Has there been a homosexualization of this article? Edit war over which image should be the first, the straight one or the gay one. [77] [78] [79] [80] [81]
Anus
Should this article include a large image of a human anus? Should the demonstration anus be male or female? Should the level of hair in the anus be "moderate"? Debates over whether cropped porn images of bleached human anuses are appropriate for Wikipedia abound.
Arachnophobia
Since
Banhammer
Edit war in June 2007 over the inclusion of
Bathrobe
Is a bathrobe better illustrated with a photo of a guy smiling at the camera making a thumbs-up gesture,
Beelzebub
Edit war in December 2005 over whether the picture at the top should be on the left and face left, or be on the right and face left, or be on the left and face right, or be on the right and face right. Image was eventually replaced with a higher quality version.
Black people
Edit war over which pictures should be used to represent black people, and how to caption those pictures. Be sure to practice your absurd captions on the pics on the talk page. Then, ramble on ad nauseam on said talk page justifying your edits. Don't forget to continue your diatribe in your edit summary.
Boops boops
Should the image to the right be captioned "Boops boops in a bucket" or "A specimen in a bucket"? This highly significant distinction was the subject of many edits (and reversions) over 8(?) years, resulting in the page being protected over this sacrilegious "vandalism", in the "specimen" state (which is clearly the wrong version!) A truly stunning discussion was hosted at Talk:Boops boops § Boops boops in a bucket :3 (note the gratuitous emoticon). Is it a suboptimal caption? Is it "vital to me and to science as a whole"? Do we all lack any sense of humor? (Absolutely not.) Culminated in a request for comment with four options. Eventually, "Boops boops in a bucket" was settled on. For now...
British Rail Class 142/153/313
This started on British Rail Class 153 when the replacement of one image of a train with another led to a two-day edit war [83] over whether it was more important to show that said train is one carriage long or to make the interior and exterior shots match. On a page with three edits in the preceding month. This was sorted when it was proved it was possible to do both, but similar debates then began (for vaguely different reasons) on British Rail Class 142 and, most spectacularly, British Rail Class 313 – where the talk page increased in size from 1KB to over 28KB in just over a week [84]. Sample edit summaries include "It's a dark photo", "It's NOT a dark photo", and "Reverted edit. Autism is not a factor". Similar "debates" continue to flare up occasionally, but nothing has quite reached that level of lameness ...
Cat
Thirty-four reverts in just over an hour. The pressing issues: Should one unremarkable photo be included? Is the cat depicted really smiling? Both users were blocked for thirty seconds – "a suitably lame block for a remarkably lame edit war" – after protection of the page had halted the reverts. One user resumed after protection was lifted the next day, leading to further twelve reverts over the same photograph. Another page protection put a stop to the lameness. As it turned out, the photo was deleted for not having any copyright status. And of course, don't forget those proud, brave souls who tried to resolve the matter by promoting the use of Happy Cat.
Celestial (comics)
Where a picture of the character "Tiamut usually referred to as The Dreaming Celestial or the 'Great Renegade'" should go. [85], [86], [87], [88], [89], [90], [91], [92], [93], [94], [95].
Cow tipping
Is it appropriate to include a picture of a cow with the caption "An unsuspecting potential victim"? People disputed this caption, largely because some considered it humor and no evidence could be found that it was. Many different variations were put forth from plain "A cow" to humorous "Mooo?" Consensus was to delete the image, even though the article spent some time with the picture of "A cow in its natural upright state". Now, despite the edit warriors' initial refusal, the article proudly features two images of cows lying down to dispute that they can lie down and get up. The old disputes can be found at Talk:Cow tipping.
Dennis Dart
.jpg)
A big row erupts in late May 2023 between
All the while as this is being fought, it all kicks off on the talk page, with such highlights being "wild accusations", "edit warring", "libellous statements", arguments that "deletionists have got their eyes on this and are going to start targeting bus articles" and eventually on one user talkpage, accusations of "behaving like a bully" and threats to take the edit warring up with the administrators. For now, though, the dust appears to have settled.
Dental floss
Truly, an edit war over dental floss! Apparently a photograph and innocuous description have somehow offended someone's sense of fair trade. For those who take their dental hygiene seriously, this became quite a crusade. Page protection was applied in December 2006 to help heal the bleeding gums.
Diplomatic missions of Australia
The crux of an argument concerned a photograph of a building in Warsaw that houses the Australian Embassy; because other tenants also occupied the same building, should the caption state that the building was the Australian Embassy in Poland? The photo was removed and argy-bargy followed, with the photographer complaining the rule was inconsistently being applied.
Ejaculation
Debate continues to rage over whether a picture and a video (presumably of a Wikipedia editor) of ejaculation is encyclopedic. Some editors object on the grounds that the subject is ejaculating without apparently touching his penis – can this be considered "normal" ejaculation? Another editor objects on the grounds that the image/video is "akin to a self attributed quote, or worse, an ... original work." Should the video and/or image be included but
Feces
Revert wars, alleged sockpuppetry, and page protection: should the article on
Finger (gesture)
The edit war was sparked over whether an image of the "one finger highway salute" should have been included. Several different pictures were added; the debate even included the lighting of the picture. Eventually it was settled. At least no one went out on the highway and rammed somebody to get a good shot ...
Guy Standing (economist)
Edit war over whether or not to mention the fact that Standing appears to be sitting in his infobox photo. The photo was humorously captioned "Guy Standing sitting". Eventually, his legs were simply cropped out. Later, editors compromised to use a version of the photo that was not as tightly cropped, making it clear that he was sitting, with the caption "Guy Standing in 2012".
Invisible Pink Unicorn
Edit war over what pictures (if any) to include of an invisible parody deity, and how to caption them.[96] [97] [98] [99] [100] It is later decided to use an image of a pink unicorn silhouette with a
Leggings
Do the leggings pictured have a floral design? A splattered paint design? Both flowers and splattered paint? Is it okay if we simply describe it as a "colored design"? A
Mackenzie Rosman
Edit war by multiple users and anonymous IP editors in October 2005 regarding whether to put a picture of the 7th Heaven actress on the left side of the page or the right. In the end, the picture was deleted anyway.
Missionary position
Should this drawing of the sexual position include a teddy bear? No, it's creepy and suggests paedophilia! Yes, it's incongruous, amusing, and adds atmosphere! Low-level edit war reverting between the two versions has been going on for over two years, with 46 reverts in 2006 alone.
PlayStation 3
A revert war over the top image. Some users felt that because the free image depicted an outdated model, it should be replaced by a promo image. Others cited the
Pregnancy
A picture of a nude pregnant woman has been the subject of numerous discussions.[101] [102] [103] [104] [105] [106] [107] [108] [109] Finally in September 2011, it comes to a head. Basically, while a few want to delete the image completely, most simply want to move the picture to another section of the article and replace the lead image with something less controversial. The other side argues that this picture is the best image out there and to move it is a violation of
Red hair
"Should we have animals?" "Should we have a picture of this girl or another one?" "Should we have a picture of someone's principal?" "Should we exclude dye jobs?"
Semen
A user who "contributed" several photographs of his own penis to articles takes an actual photo of his own semen and puts it (the photo) on the page. Cue an ongoing several-years-long revert war over the image on whether a badly taken picture should be included as a visual aid. Has since been replaced with a more clinical image of semen in a Petri dish.
Sonic the Hedgehog (character)
Which picture should top the article: "Old style" Sonic or 3D Sonic? After some discussion, including an image-by-image vote on every image on the page, consensus settled on both, and montage of the two was created. Just to make this war more irrelevant, a single (3D) picture appeared in the infobox later, the dual picture was deleted and a 2D Sonic was later readded ... (Ironically, the current picture shows both Sonic variations in question from Sonic Generations promotional material.)
Utopia (Doctor Who)
Does an image of an unaired episode pass
Upload wars on Commons of images used in English Wikipedia
File:Serbia EU (without Kosovo).svg
An EU flag in the shape of Serbian territory resulted in editors disputing whether such territory includes Kosovo. Both versions (with and without) created didn't immediately stop edit wars.
File:Eastern Asia HSR2018.svg
Does Beijing-Guangzhou Line starting Fuxing service means its maximum speed is restored to all its glory (350 km/h) like Beijing-Shanghai Line? Other lines like Mudanjiang-Suifenhe and Lanzhou-Guangyuan were also affected. Years after 350 km/h fans conceded defeat to 310 km/h status quo enforcers, China Railway steps in and actually do the upgrade (only Beijing-Wuhan section is completed, for now).
File:2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.svg
Right off the heels of earlier image wars lasting over a month, an idea to make the map more accessible for colourblind readers quickly spiraled into an all-out color war over the best palette for the map. Over the course of three days, users repeatedly uploaded competing "colourblind-friendly" maps and reverted each other, until Commons administrators stepped in and blocked most of the image-warriors for at least three days each. Subsequent discussions were held both on Commons and on the talk page of the main article on Wikipedia for implementing an accessible version of the map. The discussions eventually resolved roughly two weeks after the end of the color wars.
Templates
Userboxes
|
Template:User admins ignoring policy
A userbox reading "This user is pissed about admins ignoring policy" (the word "pissed" was later changed to "annoyed"). Surprisingly enough, the userbox was speedily deleted by admins ...
Templates for Deletion votes. During its third DRV, support waned just enough and the userbox remains deleted.Template:User Asperger
Should the font size for this userbox be 10pt or 14pt? 3rr violations, page protection, and vitriol spilling onto multiple talk pages ensue. Nobody is surprised. And then end result of the fight? – to make the text 12pt.
Template:User United Kingdom
A rather heated debate over changing the text of this user box from "This user comes from the United Kingdom." to "This user lives in the United Kingdom." This all arose from an argument over what took precedence; the text the user box said "This user comes from the United Kingdom." or the category it was grouped with Category:Wikipedians in the United Kingdom. It was resolved only by a straw poll vote and the changing of the text.
Infoboxes
John Vanbrugh
Should
Reggie Jackson, et al.
(Others include
What should the (barely noticeable, and ultimately superfluous) color be of the infobox for baseball players: the last team they were on, or the team they played the most often for? This terribly important convention was the subject of several reports at
Laurence Olivier
An administrator full-protected Laurence Olivier, a featured article, for one week, in order to end an edit war. There had indeed been some edit warring. However, the edit war did not concern the content of the article. The edit war did not even concern whether or not there should be an infobox on the article. Rather, the edit war concerned whether the article should contain two sentences of hidden text (i.e., text that shows in the edit window but is not visible to readers), advising against adding an infobox without gaining a consensus.[118]
Other templates
Template:Civility
Conflict began when an editor tried to add a new essay to this template. Another user suggested that the essay was only tangentially related to civility and removed it. Amid a sea of blue links to wise essays on the value of civility, an edit war broke out over the new link's inclusion. More parties joined the fray, making 12 reverts in two days over the essay's inclusion. Editors then took to the talk page and began hurling profanity at each other as they discussed whether the essay contained valuable advice about civility. After two full protections of the template and multiple blocks, the matter appears to have been resolved.
Template:Luxembourgian political parties
An
Jack Vance
Revert warring over the inclusion of the Wikipedia Biography Project template at the top of the talk page. Many breathless proclamations that this picture (previously part of the Wikipedia Biography Project template) was RACIST OMG and a direct attack on author Jack Vance.
Template:WikiProject Computer science
58kb of talk page debate plus a user block over how to copy edit a two line statement.
Template:Castes and Tribes of the Punjab
92RR in five hours between two users.[119] After about ten reverts, the war settles into an edit summary-less back and forth. See here.
Template:Crash series
Two editors contribute more than thirty reverts in two hours over whether Spyro is a part of the Crash Bandicoot universe or not. Tempers flare in Edit Summaries, but talk page contributions are mysteriously left unsigned.
Template:Cyprus-stub
Not two editors, but two ethnic groups of editors clashed on whether this stub template's icon should be a map, a flag, some other Cypriot symbol, or a combination of any of the three. This raged throughout a large number of Wikipedia's pages, including user talk pages, WikiProject Stub sorting, various Greece-, Turkey-, and Cyprus-related talk pages, and – of course – this template's talk page, where much of the evidence still resides.
Template:2010 FIFA World Cup Group C
On June 12, 2010, England and the United States started the group C play with a 1–1 draw. FIFA seemed naively unbothered by this – perhaps under the assumption that the results of the remaining games against Algeria and Slovenia would determine who would advance. Wikipedia, in accordance with its core mission of providing real-time goal-by-goal updates to major sporting events, couldn't wait that long. Should England be awarded second place, above the thin green line separating advancing teams from eliminated teams? [120] Or does USA have the tiebreaker? [121] Maybe both should be above the green line, [122] or between two green lines. [123] An ANI thread resulted in full protection until the next group match.
User and User talk pages
- Wikipedia user space fashions
-
2007 -
2008 -
2009
.svg){kind=link}
User pages
User:Axmann8
After an impostor of this user had been revealed (it was before suspected that the impostor's sockpuppets were Axmann8's), several users (including administrators) revert-warred over whether this user should be tagged as banned or indef-blocked, since Axmann8 was initially banned due to a community discussion. The revert war can be seen in the page history.
User:Certified.Gangsta
A user's fake "you have new messages" banner, after remaining on their userpage for months without trouble, is removed as "disruptive" by an administrator in February 2007. A quick revert war leads to a block of the user by the administrator and a giant thread on the administrator's noticeboard (
User:COOL CAT ON WHEELS!!!!
Should this indef-blocked user with no edits have an {{
User:Jimbo Wales
Edit war over background color of various parts of user page. Jimbo himself never made his color preferences known, but the war ended nonetheless.
Part 2 – Edit war over whether it should be noted on Jimbo's userpage that he was either a co-founder or sole founder. Several users reverted each other and one was blocked for
User:R/Single Letter Group
Should people be allowed to edit this page if they have more than one letter in their username? What about numbers? Symbols? Warring involves sysops deleting and restoring the page to remove "unwanted" contributions to the page. It culminated in the Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/User:R/Single Letter Group MFD listing.
Two sysops in a revert war over the user page of a blocked
User talk pages
User talk:66.167.235.16
User talk:Ned Scott
An anonymous user copied and re-posted an attack originally posted by another anonymous user in 2008. It was subsequently reverted by others and then restored by the user a total of 22 times in 10 minutes.
User talk:2602:30A:C06E:EDC0:80B3:5D9:F53D:BBB1
The blocked IP removed a block message, multiple users added it back, talk page access was revoked, socking began, with the page ending up being fully protected indefinitely. User:Bishonen ended up stating:
I've fullprotected this page to stop the edit warring. I hope everybody realizes all the IPs posting here are one individual, who is thereby entitled to remove (not refactor) comments here. There's little point in fighting on one of their many talkpages anyway. Who's gonna know?
User talk:Asticky
Diplomat Mass murderer
People rushed to shower her user talk with praise and barnstars. This might have blown over (it really, really should have blown over) but the issue was raised on the administrators' noticeboard. The praise and barnstars were removed, and the talk page was fully protected (then reduced to semi-protection) (then back to full protection) (then back to semi-protection). Then the comments were restored. Then removed again. Fight! Fight! Fight! The AN thread devolved into editors insulting each other. Editors stopped caring about the situation, and the barnstars stayed. 38 editors (10(?) administrators included) made 107 comments total in the thread. And here I am whining that this was overblown and immortalizing it on this page.
As an added bonus, the edit that changed "is" to "was" (you know, the thing that started this) was a
Miscellameness
Age of the Earth
Fourteen reverts to date on a hatnote: should it be explained that this is an article about the science of the age of the Earth and you can also read creation myth if you want? Does the hatnote pander to creationism? Does deleting a hatnote constitute censorship and even disenfranchisement? Does putting this hatnote violate policy? Is it important who might want to read the hatnote?
Altrincham
English town formerly part of Cheshire; should the article mention that many people still use Cheshire on their post? Inspired a talk subpage, and a sockpuppetry accusation, not to mention the associated blood boiling rage and name calling on Talk:Association of British Counties ...
Aphex Twin
Is Aphex Twin really
Australia
Should the royal anthem be included in the infobox, or should it be a footnote? Is it even worthy of a footnote? A long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long debate continues on the talk page, including an ... interesting ... table of opinions (!).
Bahá'í Faith
Should there be a reference to Baha'i YouTube videos? Should they have their own section? Is YouTube encyclopedic enough or should be counted as a personal website? Debate lasted for over a month and involved many a personal attack, accusations from the single user advocating the inclusion that he was being ganged up on against WP policy and threats to have users blocked.
Black Cobra (gang)
How should this Danish or Swedish street gang's theft of 120 boxes of cake be worded? Ongoing since 2012 the humorous phrase "Which is many as twelve tens. And that's terrible" has been added and removed almost twenty times, and mentioned in edit summaries. 20. That's as many as two tens. And that's terrible.
Canada
Is this country in northern North America, in the northern part of North America, or just in North America? The first option is just vandalism, and a poll was needed to achieve consensus on this important issue.
Cauliflower
Is cauliflower nutritious? Does specifying what parts are usable violate
Charles Darwin
Is sharing a
Cluster bomb
A lame edit war started in the wee hours of the morning on May 31, 2008 (for those in UTC) over whether or not the article should state that, from a certain angle, a cluster bomb resembles a certain part of the male body.
Democratic Party (United States)
This article has seen a number of frequent and repeating lame edit wars. These include:
- Was the party founded by President Thomas Jefferson in 1792 or President Andrew Jackson in 1828 and does this make it the oldest political party in the world?
- Should the party be referred to as the "Democratic Party" or the "Democrat Party"?
- Who is a "conservative Democrat" and what do you call them?
- Who should be considered a 2008 presidential front-runner?
- Is the party center-left, centrist, center-right, right, progressive, conservative, right from an international POV, left from a general POV, ...
Euphoria (American TV series)
Is the third season coming in late 2023 or early 2024? The source Harper's Bazaar estimated to premiere either in which date.
Fortune Global 500
Is
Fred Saberhagen
Noted science fiction author dies, which is tragic. Then the tragedy is compounded when the death is reverted for being an uncited statement in a BLP. Edit war and thousands of words of often uncivil argument ensues (sometimes valid, sometimes invalid, sometimes downright stupid), noted by various external sites ([124],[125]), but Fred remains dead. The resulting article had three citations for his death and no citations for any other fact contained within.
Hitler Has Only Got One Ball
Can anonymously written folk songs be copyrighted? What if the anonymous author sues Wikipedia? Or his heir? Such a serious controversy on such a serious article can be settled only by a month-long, soul-scarring flame-fest, delving into international copyright law, which fails to convince an obstinately irascible user out to impugn Wikipedia's credibility.
Irish breakfast
What goes into an Irish breakfast;
Italian beef
In 2005 a several week long edit war over the Italian beef sandwich ensued over many many topics regarding the popular Chicago style dish, if a variation of it including cheese is common, if it is in fact Italian in anything besides name. A link to the talk page over this war still exists.[126]
.jpg)
Jesus
A very long dispute arguing over whether to use BC/AD or BCE/CE for era notations, resulting in the silly decision to use both systems within the article (i.e. 400 BC/BCE and 30 AD/CE) with the BC/AD terms usually preceding the BCE/CE terms. Both systems were used until an RFC was conducted in 2013 and the consensus was to have the article use the BC/AD notation. Much like Jesus, the dispute is sometimes resurrected.
J. K. Rowling
Edit war over long-time contributors preferring the old Harvard references versus the new Cite.php method. Multiple users attempt to use the Ref converter with other users reverting back. One side files a WP:RFC over the issue, while the other side takes a strawpoll. The strawpoll results in an overwhelming consensus to convert. The primary supporter of Harvard references left the project as a result.
KTVX
Is adding that rival KSL-TV is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints vandalism that must be reverted on sight?
KUFO
Is the 12–5am DJ of this Oregonian radio station a "personality"? Or should she be removed from the page since she's supposedly a recording? The edit war receives mention on-air – and possible Wikipedia editing – from a KUFO DJ.
List of London Monopoly locations
Is the colour group containing
List of television stations in North America by media market
Nielsen claimed copyright over the concept of the DMA (or TV market), and the entire United States section of this article required a complete overhaul. This led to an edit war about whether a 40-year-old, incomplete, public domain list was better than something made up by some Wikipedian, or whether we should assume that the copyright claim, which no one has ever seen, doesn't exist and bring back the FCC DMAs. Is linking to the FCC officially verboten due to copyright, or is the government organization under public domain? Either way, the only solution seems to be having no list for the United States at all.
Lucky Charms
A long-running, slow-motion edit war between anonymous users seeks to address the big issue: Are they or aren't they sold in Ireland? See also:
Maryland
Is it North or South? Mid-Atlantic or Southern? Reversions were once a daily occurrence and the discussion page was rife with debate offering little more than personal reflections, but a subpage helped clean things up and provided the riff-raff a place to babble away. The subpage is now filled with passionate arguments, which of course wouldn't be complete without editors calling one another "redneck" and "yankee".
Mayonnaise
It's dangerous stuff, not only for one's waist but also one's sanity, at least on Wikipedia. Does traditional mayonnaise contain
Memphis
Did David Saks write "the official song of Memphis", or did he write a Memphis "song of the year"? An editor calls the City Council to find out, only to find that the songwriter himself has already called requesting proof that he wrote "the official song" – citing Wikipedia as his source.
Michael Moore
He grew up in Davison, Michigan, next to Flint, Michigan [130]. He often says he's from Flint. Is that correct?
The Mickey Mouse Club
Was Zachary Jaydon a cast member throughout the MMC incarnation of this Disney series? Some say yes, some no, as his name is added to and removed from the cast list with depressing frequency. A standard reference book on Disney television doesn't list him, but some online sources do. Were those references added by Jaydon himself? Who knows? Fans of the 1950s version of the show can only shake their heads in bemusement, grateful that nobody is edit warring about Moochie's appearances.
Miss Kitty Fantastico
Edit war over whether it is appropriate for the text some demons to link to the article
Monty Hall problem
Is it a puzzle of probability or of game theory? Is it even correct? This dispute has led to multiple mediation attempts and an ArbCom case. After ten years of disputing, as of August 2012 there have been 1,269,228 words posted on the article talk page without reaching any agreement.[131] By comparison, all the Harry Potter books combined have 1,084,170 words in them.
Moscow Metro
Regarding the table of Moscow Metro lines, should the color of the line be in the first column or the second? Should the color names be spelled out or do the colors speak for themselves? Edit warring over the version of the table occurred at the onset of June 2006. Following a month-long full protection, a straw poll, a request for comment, and an appearance in the New York Times on June 17, 2006 for its protection (and almost certainly this lame dispute), the article was unprotected, not because anything was actually resolved but because the article had been protected for so long. And guess what? More edit/revert warring and ensues, to the point where the original table is re-added to the article and one frustrated editor proclaims: "Ah, so we've killed a couple of weeks to ... keep the old table. Amazing." Indeed. Amazing.
New England
A single editor from
Ōkami Kakushi
A two-way edit war between an unregistered user and a registered user was started in March 2010 over whether or not the characters identified as "kamibito" in the anime and video game Ōkami Kakushi qualify as werewolves.
Puberty
Should boys or girls be listed first? Should it be in traditional English or alphabetical order, or should it be in the order that humans start puberty? Is there some kind of conspiracy in favour of females over males, or is it entirely innocent? The eventual consensus was to list boys first, and the article has remained that way for some time.
REALbasic
Anonymous user with a bone to pick spends more than half a year on a crusade to discredit the subject and to promote a boycott. Page is protected multiple times, several sockpuppets are blocked, threats are made to bring Wikipedians before an attorney general for consumer fraud, blocking an entire ISP is tried. Edit war stops as abruptly as it started, with the anonymous editor's final edit summary stating that he was personally defrauded by the company because they betrayed Macintosh customers by supporting Windows, or something like that.
Riot shield
A lone editor leads a brief edit war in an attempt to point out to the world what should be obvious, that is illegal to throw rocks at the police. Thankfully, he eventually gave up, though not before opening up a dispute resolution and a request for comment.
Ronald Ryan
The last man to be hanged in Australia died decades ago, but the debate over his possible innocence still rages on (as all the best controversies do) in Wiki form. Accusations and counter-accusations are
Sarah Edmonds
High-intensity edit war lasting about forty minutes. Editor A makes a correction, giving her middle name and month of birth. This was lost through an edit conflict, and Editor B adds a paragraph worth of content. A reverts; B reverts. Et cetera. The only objection either had with the other's edits was that they reverted their own. The war can be seen here: [133]
Stanley Kubrick
Should the Stanley Kubrick article have an infobox? No! An infobox "pollutes the article" and having no infobox "will encourage readers to know more about the person" and makes the article look "more professional". The debate had been going on since August 2015, with countless infoboxes added and deleted over the years, but in a request for comment in November 2021, there was a strong consensus for adding one. Thus, the years-long feud came to an end.
Stegosaurus in popular culture
Two admins disagree over the inclusion of a paragraph mentioning several Stego-like cartoon characters. The dispute eventually dissolves into slow wheel-warring over several days, with a careful attention to the
Stingray
Does Steve Irwin's death by a stingray warrant mentioning? Immediately after news of his death emerged, a lame edit war ensued.
Sweden
Who was the prime Prime Minister of Sweden between October 5 and October 6, 2006? Did Göran Persson resign on the 5th or the 6th? Was Fredrik Reinfeldt appointed on the 5th or the 6th? Or did Sweden have two prime ministers during the period?
Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World
Is it a spin-off, a sequel, or a spin-off sequel? It's a direct continuation of the plot of Tales of Symphonia, but the playable characters are different most of the time. The developers have always called it a sequel, except for when they've always called it a spin-off. Has been going on for about a year now.
Land making up Tsushima subprefecture
Is it an island or a group of islands? Does it matter if there are islets surrounding what people call an island? Can we still consider it an island if the navy blasted a shipping channel in the middle of it? Maybe the Japanese name should be used to decide. Or possibly the English term used to refer to it by the government of Japan. Or is it just a case of one side thinking about the landmass in the sea (e.g.
U2 (yet again)
Is it relevant that Bono plays the harmonica? Should it be mentioned in the lead paragraph along with vocals and guitar? Does this mean that we should also state in the same sentence that The Edge also plays piano, organ, and bass, in addition to background vocals, guitar, and keyboards? As an anonymous IP user kept adding "harmonica" as one of Bono's instruments, other editors kept removing it. A discussion on the talk page took place and was closed, with the consensus that "harmonica" will not be included. Of course, the addition of "harmonica" continued. A second discussion was created following the first one, and the anonymous editor eventually got the hint after "harmonica" was removed following six previous attempts.
Ultimate Fighting Championship
Are Ultimate Fighting Championship events notable enough for individual articles or do they fail the criteria? That's the debate that continued on MMA talk pages, which resulted in omnibus articles being created.
UMBC
Long edit war back in 2005 regarding whether the school is located in Arbutus, Baltimore, or Catonsville. A compromise was attempted when the location was changed to Baltimore County, but that was considered too general by some, but unnecessary by one Baltimore supporter who asserted that "Baltimore" includes all of Baltimore County anyway. And since one lame edit war apparently wasn't enough, another one raged over whether the school's full name is "University of Maryland, Baltimore County" or "University of Maryland Baltimore County". Look closely. Yes, the only difference is the comma, a comma which generated a heated debate on the talk page over whether the school wished to identify itself with the punctuation mark. One vandal even gave a nod to the comma edit war by changing the bolded title to "University, of, Maryland, Baltimore, County".[134]
User:Santa on Sleigh
"Santa" (possibly a sock puppet of an experienced editor) was blocked on Christmas day for attempting to spread cheer and goodwill to other users. A long discussion on WP:ANI (and a wheel war over Santa's blocking) ensued over the legitimacy of the block – was Santa being disruptive? Was Santa a troll? Santa lamented about being unable to visit Wikipedia in 2006.
Wii Play
Should the article about this video game show the box art from the European release, the Japanese release, or the US release? National pride is at stake, so the article has been locked. Furthermore there is an even more heated debate as to whether its 58% rating should be considered above or below "average" here ...
WKBS-TV (Philadelphia)
An edit war over the inclusion of these nine words: "the first-ever Kickoff Classic, played at Giants Stadium". Things get so heated that one of the editors starts making personal attacks and is blocked. A compromise remains, where a link to the page on said game is a piped link in the transcript of the general manager's final speech.
Year 2038 problem
After 2038, it turns out that some computers are also going to run into date issues in the year 292,277,026,596, well after the predicted end of the solar system. Which means we've still got some time to discuss whether the article should include a sentence that says "this is not widely regarded as a pressing issue".[135] [136] [137] [138] Apparently saying that it didn't matter itself didn't matter, because the phrase was deleted when nobody was watching and nobody even seemed to notice. And then the reference to the problem was deleted as well, so if you're reading this after finding a copy of Wikipedia amidst the fallout of the war caused by the Year 292,277,026,596 problem, the Wikimedia Foundation extends its condolences.
Nazism
Should quotes by Adolf Hitler be sourced using primary sources or are scholarly sources required? Does it really matter considering that they are just quotes? This dispute has resulted in a heated edit war, at least one AN/I thread, a RfC and two rounds of full protection, all without resolving this never ending edit war.
Wikipedia
Is Jimbo the founder or a co-founder with Larry Sanger? Edit war begins on the Larry Sanger page, involves AN/I threads and moves to an edit war across dozens of articles.
Wikipedia:Lamest edit wars
Was Psychosurgeons an edit war or not? Five editors wrangling over whether an argument about a comma was an edit war or the same editor changing his own edit back and forwards – 97 times! In the end, it was resolved when the original article was deleted.
Reach for the Sky
An edit war springs up over the addition of a single line of whitespace between the external links section and the navboxes in
Talk:Tyrannosaurus
Perhaps one of the most truly bizarre edit wars ever, this was a short but tense edit war where an anonymous user apparently argued with themselves over whether
Shiba Inu
An edit war between editors and the internet has resulted in several page protects and internal text warning users not to add Doge (meme). The debate rages on whether a link in "See also" is enough or whether a mention in the article is notable.
Bee hummingbird
Is the bee hummingbird the world's smallest dinosaur? Is this a noteworthy fact? One user certainly thought so, sporadically edit warring for over a year to include the statement, eventually resulting in a Request for Comment, where opposition to the statements' inclusion was all but unanimous, still, the user refused to accept the result, forcing the discussion to have to be formally closed.
Meta pages
Main Page
What
The weather in London
Once upon a time, editors felt the need to give an example of an inappropriate article title. "The weather in London" was chosen. And then, over a long period of time, people created and admins deleted various entries for
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion
There was a flurry of activity in late 2011 when an enthusiastic user noted that the often abbreviated form of "Wikipedia:Articles for deletion" should be WP:Afd and not WP:AfD as had previously been the case. A bold maneuver quickly descended into arguments from both sides, culminating in the rather sage advice For fu*k's sake, leave it alone and a proposal to ban anyone else having the gall to carry on the discussion. The closing administrator perhaps summed up popular opinion by stating "I have intently analysed every word of the impassioned arguments presented in this section, both for and against, and have discovered that this discussion is pointless, and furthermore, that we all have better things to do than try to change a long-standing abbreviation that has presented absolutely no problems to anyone ever."
Wikipedia:Footnotes
Regular dispute spurts over the wording having to do with the placement of footnotes: after or before punctuation? Do we or do we not recommend any one? Should we be consistent between articles? At one point spread to several related policy and style pages.
Wikipedia:Ignore all rules
Should the rule to be ignored be singular, or plural? Will working with others be permitted by this policy? And can (or should) this rule itself be ignored? Many editors, including a few administrators, spent well over a month trying to decide these critical answers. And then, a few months later, spent well over a month doing it again. See protection log and the story of a change to IAR.
Another edit war about this page (circa 2006) was whether it should be kept to the one-sentence version from Larry Sanger, or be several paragraphs, including explanations and conditions of the policy.[1]
Wikipedia:List of Wikipedians by number of edits/latest
Can users remove themselves from the list? If so, should they have their names replaced with
Wikipedia:Manual of Style (dates and numbers)
A minor two-word change to the guideline sparks an edit war over whether words in quotes should very rarely be linked or should never be linked. Reactions to these two words involve gratuitous personal attacks and spread to several related pages in a forest fire, including pages explaining how "binding" the manual of style is supposed to be in the first place.
Wikipedia:Notability (fiction)
Mother of all notability disputes, edit wars have erupted over wording of the guideline, whether parts are/were significantly disputed or not, and even – once it had been demoted from a guideline – whether it should be tagged as "essay", "historical", "proposed", or "failed".
Wikipedia:Please be a giant dick, so we can ban you
An edit war which focuses on
What will the future bring, for a vital issue such as this, the choice of which picture is the funniest/least funny/most educational/least educational/best pun/worst pun on a humour page? One might think that only
Wikipedia:Requests for de-adminship
Wik's nominations of nine
Wikipedia:Requests for comment
What is the correct wording to indicate that an RfC may be followed by an arbitration request? Is it "Although not formally required before proceeding to arbitration, many RfCs are steps towards it", or is it "Many, though by no means all, arbitration cases are preceded by a user-conduct RFC"? Three-way revert war that has lasted two weeks and 50+ edits so far.
WP:RFC/KM
A simple redirect to an RFC page that was deleted and recreated numerous times.
Wikipedia:Spoiler
The meta-irony of an edit war over the presence of {{
Pretty much anything to do with non-admin rollback
Including
Wikipedia:April Fools/April Fools' Day 2019
What should the "other" section be called? Other pranks? General tomfoolery? General
Wikipedia:April Fools/April Fools' Day 2020
Once again, the Tomfoolery/Jerryfoolery debate occurred, and the ensuring chaos enveloped the ENTIRE April Fools page. The Communist Manifesto got posted. Someone posted hundreds of digits of pi. People began listing the names of pokemon. "Pre-April 1st" became "Pre-March 32nd", then "Pre-February 61st", and so on. The page got rotated 45 degrees. It got to the point where there had to be a genuine request for page protection because things had gotten too insane. All this happened in the first three hours of April 1st. And out of this came: The Great April Fools Edit War Part II: Electric Boogaloo. This war was so absurd that there had to be an RfC over conduct on April Fools' Day, with consensus being that these edit wars are to no longer be tolerated.
(Ro)bot wars
Bot vs bot
RMCD bot vs itself
A requested move on a part of the RM infrastructure in March 2018 confused RMCD bot, which engaged in a brief edit war with itself, in which it added a requested move notice every 15 minutes, and then less than a minute later removed it while updating the table.
AnomieBOT vs T13bot
Should the header at Wikipedia:Templates for discussion and Wikipedia:Possibly unfree files (since closed) have the metadata class or not? User:T13bot, editing off-task, engaged in a brief edit war with User:AnomieBOT in July 2014 over this minor issue, with each bot carefully following 3RR by making only two reverts on each page.
Mathbot vs itself
Beginning in
Template talk:X1 – Template talk:X9 wars
For two months,
RfCbot vs itself
For over six hours on 4 September 2009, RfCbot edit-warred with itself about whether or not to include a moveheader template at Talk:White-bellied Parrot (since moved to Talk:Green-thighed parrot), and Talk:Nanday Parakeet (history links).
File:Foot Amputation.JPG
Is it on the MediaWiki:Bad image list or not? SoxBot reverts itself at 22:41 daily for over a month in early 2011.
Human hair growth
A slow-motion edit war between
Template:Opentask-short
Semi-protection of a template used in the interface kicked off a twelve-hour edit war between SuggestBot and Lowercase sigmabot, who couldn't agree on whether a padlock should be displayed. Every hour, SuggestBot removed the padlock while updating the template, and 20 minutes later, Lowercase sigmabot put it back. This continued until SuggestBot was stopped and reprogrammed by its operator.
Bot v Bot v Bot v Bot
In a spree of 60 edits in less than 20 minutes, four bots edit warred about which hidden comment should be added to the top of Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism.
GreenC bot vs InternetArchiveBot
InternetArchiveBot repaired an archive link, adding the URL fragment, and GreenC bot removed the fragment. This slow-motion edit war went on for four months between September 2017 and January 2018 before a time-out was called.
AnomieBOT vs Bot1058
Should Talk:Jean Gabriel Marie (1907-1928) redirect to Talk:Jean Gabriel Marie or Talk:Jean Gabriel-Marie? These bots made more than 700 edits each from April to October 2023 on this question, before this edit war, along with a less long-lasting one at Talk:Syrian Republic (1946-1963), was discovered and resolved.
Patern-avoiding permutation
This epic man versus machine battle involves something widely agreed to be a problem:
Wikipedia:Sandbox
A six-hour edit war between SoxBot IV and some anonymous editor that turned a testing page into an arena [142]. A suggested rematch more than a year later was withdrawn after lack of interest from the now-inactive editor.
Wikipedia:Sandbox
A 23-hour edit war in the sandbox between some anonymous editors and two bots, Lowercase sigmabot II and Cyberbot I over the Sandbox header.
Deletion wars
The Gay Nigger Association of America is the most fought over article for whether it should be nuked. The GNAA article was first created sometime in 2004 and finally deleted in November 2006. September 2010 saw what were hoped to be the final pushes to restore the article. A redirect to Goatse Security later took the absent article's place, and an RfD reaffirmed this redirect as the new status quo. After several more DRVs, the article was finally recreated after the 12th DRV.
Here are the glorious winners with the most debates:
- 40 (44 counting deleted AfDs): Gay Nigger Association of America (19 AfDs (26 counting deleted ones), 13 DRVs, 1 RfD, 2 MfDs on the userspace draft that was eventually restored, and an MfD on the userfied old copy of the page.) (and a (failed) proposal to prohibit further nominations, and an AfD for that, too)
- 24: Encyclopedia Dramatica (8 AfDs, 16 DRVs)
- 19: Daniel Brandt (14 AfDs, 5 DRVs ... oh, and an ArbCom case)
- 12: List of films that most frequently use the word "fuck" (10 AfDs, 2 DRVs[143] [144], and a (failed) proposal to prohibit further nominations)
- 11: )
- 11: List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming / List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming (8 Afds, 3 DRVs)
- 11: List of films considered the worst
- 10: United States and state terrorism (10 AfDs)
- 10: )
- 10: Uncyclopedia (10 AfDs)
- 9: Earth – 1 bad-faith nom, 8 April Fools' noms
- 9: The Game (mind game) (6 AfDs, 3 DRVs)
- 9: , and the article was restored over the redirect three times since the last deletion in February 2008)
- 9: Wikitruth (8 AfDs, 1 DRV)
- 9: List of male performers in gay porn films(7 AfDs, 2 DRVs)
- 9: Railpage Australia (9 AfDs)
- 8: Girlfriend
- 7: Ashida Kim; Plowback retained earnings(4 RfD, 3 DRV); this very page
- 6: History of video game consoles (eighth generation); Jonathon Sharkey(plus numerous arguments about notability on other pages, complaints from the individual himself, and a GA Review that failed miserably); Ava Addams
- 5: List of Presidents of the United States with facial hair(the first nomination being under "List of United states presidents with facial hair during their tenure"); SSSniperWolf (with two nominations under "SSSniperwolf", and one nomination under "Sssniperwolf")
- 4: MathematicsAndStatistics
- 1: The vandal cluepon. Just one MFD but, seriously, was that one MFD really needed? One participant actually referred to it as an IDLefest.
Honorable mentions go to the various pages that are nominated for deletion during April Fools. Examples include Earth (nine times), Wikipedia (nine times) and the Afd pages being nominated for deletion themselves, often recursively.
Metawars
On rare occasions, edit wars have erupted where the vital subject at stake is ... well, edit wars.
Wikipedia:Edit warring
An edit war about the definition of "edit war" on the policy page telling us not to edit war. Does one word (or less than one word) count? (three edits reverted.) Involving the same or different material? (two edits reverted.) Is adding or deleting a cleanup tag exempt? (two edits reverted.). All without any real attempt to arrive at a consensus before reverting again. It took full protection [145] to stop the edit warring.
Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Edit warring
In what is, ironically, a noticeboard for violators of a rule
Wikipedia:Assume good faith
An edit war regarding a page about preventing edit wars. Should editors assume their fellow Wikipedians have "above average" intelligence? Resulted in full protection by two administrators,[citation needed] a waste of a talk page, and a demotion from official policy to mere guideline. And it still is.
Wikipedia talk:Attack sites
In the course of the debate over a proposed policy banning all links to sites deemed to be "attack sites" against Wikipedians, some editors enforced the proposed policy against other editors who were, for the purposes of the debate, attempting to provide (in their opinion) legitimate examples of attack sites. Much edit warring followed, with accusations from both sides of bad faith,
Meta-lameness
Have you learned nothing from this entire page?!? Of course there have been lame edit wars about lame edit wars! Edit wars over which edit wars are allowed to be on these pages, or over how specific entries on this page should be worded (oh, the
* Reverted because this is not a true example of irony. Even this revert itself is not an example of irony, and even in the context of this page. Look it up if you don't believe this. This includes you, Alanis Morrisette.
† Yeah, but the colloquial definition of irony does include this example.
‡ We are all sticklers for accuracy here, you know that. We need everything prim and proper, and you have certainly worsened our humor page that no non-editor will read with this terrifying edit.
See also
- Parkinson's Law of Triviality
- Pig War (1859)
- Wikipedia:Don't edit war over the colour of templates
- Wikipedia:Drop the stick and back slowly away from the horse carcass
- Wikipedia:Historic debates
- How to win a revert war
- Wikipedia:No climbing the Reichstag dressed as Spider-Man
- Wikipedia:Talk page highlights
- Wikipedia:WikiWar
- m:The Wrong Version
- WP:BOSTONTEAPARTY
- Wikipedia:How to put up a straight pole by pushing it at an angle
- Visualization from Information is Beautiful, by David McCandless.
- User:JulieMinkai/ANI Hall of Fame
Notes
- 1. [147] Not really an edit war, but still ...