Portal talk:Anarchism/Archive 3

Oscar Wilde featured photo
The first photograph associated with anarchism has been promoted to Featured Image status: an image of 19th century anarchist dandy, Oscar Wilde. It can now be added to the Selected Photo section, but must first receive a caption. The current caption reads "Oscar Wilde, novelist, poet and playwright, was so enchanted by the work of Peter Kropotkin that he converted to anarchism and wrote the essay The Soul of Man under Socialism." It has been listed for several days without receiving comment. Finally Skomorokh has endorsed it, and as this isn't exactly a democracy, there's no reason to not move ahead with it. If any editor has a concern with it, and potential desire to change it, please consider discussing the matter here. In the meantime, and in the absence of any genuine discussion taking place, we can just move ahead and add it in. --Cast (talk) 04:45, 15 January 2009 (UTC)


 * I am Skomorokh  and I approve of this caption. 02:15, 15 January 2009 (UTC) (Originally posted on maintenance station. Keep it on the talk page, where records of discussion and endorsements are archived.--Cast (talk) 04:45, 15 January 2009 (UTC))

Well, I finally got around to setting up Oscar's photo; not that I was waiting for anything. We don't function on a voting, or probationary process, after all. Nominating selected items is a process of discussion on the basis that we avoid conflict. If there is no conflict, there need be no discussion and uploads can be automatic. Assuming an editor is careful with their caption, and their image is of high quality, an image can be selected without any process at all. --Cast (talk)

March 2009 selected article nominations
I got nothing. Can anyone suggest a well-referenced article of decent length and relevance to anarchism that has not been selected already? Skomorokh 21:22, 14 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Right, I've stooped to C-class articles and found The Bolshevik Myth, 1919 United States anarchist bombings and Cowley Club to be somewhat presentable. Skomorokh  21:28, 14 February 2009 (UTC)
 * (Originally posted on maintenance station. Keep it on the talk page, where records of discussion and endorsements are archived.--Cast (talk) 22:52, 20 February 2009 (UTC))


 * I favor The Bolshevik Myth, myself. In fact, it looks good enough that a few images and a little fleshing out would get it to GA status, or at least very close. And can you please stop posting your nominations on the maintenance page. The whole purpose of centralizing the pages is so that everyone will see comments made more easily. This is the page that will be archived, and someday when we aren't around, someone may want to go back and find out why certain images or articles were nominated. It may never be important, but history has a way of catching up with you on Wikipedia.--Cast (talk) 22:52, 20 February 2009 (UTC)


 * My apologies for posting there originally; still adjusting to the streamlined system. I'll give The Bolshevik Myth a write-up and stick it here. Hopefully someone will have something near GA standard written by April. Skomorokh  23:46, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Denis Rancourt
I would like to propose that the article on Denis Rancourt be featured as an article on the portal. He is on record as an anarchist, and his struggle to reform post-secondary education at the University of Ottawa is getting international attention with a (highly critical) editorial in the New York Times. His article is now also under continuous attack from rabid right-wingers who are trying to paint him as an anti-semite and a nutcase (ie/ the same tactic they use against Chomsky and every other high-profile anarchist academic). The extra attention from featuring him on the anarchism portal might help in shining a light at the cockroaches. -- SmashTheState (talk) 18:32, 20 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Unfortunately, aside from being included in a category of Canadian anarchists, there is no mention of him being an anarchist in the article body. There isn't even a citation for the identification. Further, there is no mention of his philosophy, politics, or projects, in relation to anarchism. This may be a "B" or "C" grade academic article, but it is a "stub" as far as anarchist influence is concerned. Further, if we were to nominate articles based on whether they are associated with a "worthy cause", there would probably be a long list which would find Rancourt no where near the top. Our current MO is to pick articles which have a very direct relationship to anarchism, so that a casual reader can have no doubt as to why this portal is featuring it, and then to make sure such an article is of high quality. Thus, it would be best to improve the article and expand its anarchist scope. Since you seem to know so much about him, why not dig up some sources and improve the article so that it would make more sense to feature it on the portal? --Cast (talk) 22:42, 20 February 2009 (UTC)


 * If you read the history and the talk page, you'll see that all of that USED to be there, but was stripped out as part of the ongoing hatchet-job against him. Rancourt is extremely forthcoming about the anarchist basis for his activities as well as his self-identification as an anarchist.  Under threat of ban, I can no longer revert on the article, leaving it to be savaged freely.  Have a look at the article a couple of months ago.  Might it be possible to feature an older version of the article? -- SmashTheState (talk) 23:29, 20 February 2009 (UTC)


 * I see now what you're referring to, but I think the best direction to go in is forward – not back. Any references to the connection between Rancourt and his anarchist philosophy should be robustly cited, so as to destroy any doubt as to his notability, the anarchist influence to his work, and the impact he is having on society. If the citations for these points are cited powerfully enough, it would be very, very difficult for a dissenting editor to edit war over the point. The removal of verifiable references which are indisputable would constitute vandalism, and would safeguard the article. I stand by my earlier suggestion. This article needs attention, but in the form of good editing, not merely a selected portal position. I honestly don't even know what selecting it to this portal would accomplish. Doing so wouldn't necessarily bring attention of the kind you desire to it. Although the task force is undergoing a slow period, I would suggest you start a section on the Anarchist Task Force talk page, and request editors take the time to help the article along. --Cast (talk) 04:01, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

A selected image has been deleted
File:Umultimopiccolo.jpg, which had been Portal:Anarchism/Selected image/13, has been deleted. I've replaced it with File:Ungdomshuset.jpg, but I don't think that is of the standard we are looking for. I'd like to promote File:Radicals awaiting deportation.jpg, File:Kropotkin2.jpg and File:Ross Winn restored.jpg from the selected image nominations. Thoughts? Skomorokh 13:07, 12 April 2009 (UTC)


 * I think that all three of the suggested images are of suitably high quality, and cannot choose. I would, however, be in favor of either the "radicals awaiting" or Ross Winn. Both seem suitably crisp and engaging. Were they to have superior background information, such as knowledge of who the author was, I would suggest taking them through the featured picture nomination process. The Kropotkin image is superior to other images of Peter I've seen floating around, but it seems to have several large and obvious distortions. I say go with both of the others. --Cast (talk) 07:30, 15 April 2009 (UTC)


 * I've decided, since this seems to be an uncontroversial discussion, to go ahead and add on the Ross Winn photo. I rather like it, thanks to the restoration job that was performed on it. --Cast (talk) 03:28, 16 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Ah, I hadn't realised we were missing two images. So then, Winn replaces Bonnot, Radicals replace Undonmshuset, and Kropotkin remains at large. All these are a little low-rez for WP:WIAFP I fear. Skomorokh  03:39, 16 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Though note that Valued pictures is now off the ground as the GA to Featured pictures' FA. Skomorokh  04:09, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

Help (Ayuda)
My Name is Matías, and I work in wikipedia, but in spanish. I don't knok much english... Well, the point is that I worked about a life of Biófilo Panclasta, an unknow colombian anarchist. Biófilo was deleted of the colombian politic history, althoug He was an important and interesting person. I want to know if somebody can translate this articule to english (in spanish, is a good article), because I think than his life must be knew for other anarchists in other languages. Thanks for all. My count, in spanish, is fbuelvas. Is in the history of Biófilo Panclasta. This is the link
 * http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biófilo_Panclasta
 * http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usuario:Fbuelvas —Preceding unsigned comment added by 190.144.170.10 (talk) 21:21, 20 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Hola, Matías! I do not speak/write Spanish well enough to translate, and unfortunately, there are very few English-language sources about Panclasta, so it will require a direct translation. I will ask my colleagues at the Anarchism Task Force if they can help, and will let you know at your Spanish Wikipedia talkpage if this is achieved.  Skomorokh   12:12, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

I've made an userbox for the portal but
But I don't know how to make it into a template.Any help? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Alocaluser (talk • contribs) 07:49, 1 June 2009 (UTC)
 * You just need to put it on it's own supbage, i.e. User:Alocaluser/Anarchism portal, and then you can add it to pages by putting the name of the subpage between brackets, like User:Alocaluser/Anarchism portal. For an example, see User_WP_Anarchism. Thanks for your interest in the portal! Mahalo,   Skomorokh   11:58, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

Expand request at Libertarianism
Wotcher, I lodged an expand request at Libertarianism. The articles coverage is much more balanced, and seems to represent the state of affairs. With the exception of the Current Libertarian Movements section being a selection of pro-property micro-parties and a few genuinely notable think tanks. It needs expansion with non-propertarian current libertarian movements. Fifelfoo (talk) 01:45, 24 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Thank you for your interest in improving the coverage of anarchism and libertarian socialism in libertarian related articles, but as the talk page for the anarchism portal, this space is poorly suited to your request. Please consider contacting the Anarchism Task Force for help.--Cast (talk) 02:00, 24 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the redirect. I spent about ten minutes in policy and project pages trying to find where to direct this.  Issue of clarity of process and documentation?  Moving request to appropriate location. Fifelfoo (talk) 03:25, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

Rotation of selected articles
Given the scant availability of good unused articles, and the decent supply of used ones, is the time right to institute the same rotation system we have for images for articles as well? Skomorokh 08:09, 2 September 2009 (UTC)
 * I think that with 17 good articles, and four featured articles, we may be set. Some of the articles are not "core" anarchist material, and so we can perhaps get away with creating write-ups which highlight the anarchist element of the articles. For example, the article on Anarky is primarily concerned with the character's publication history; a decidedly non-anarchist affair. A write-up on it could focus on the political and philosophical themes mentioned in the article. Would this be acceptable for a rotating template, or must we stick to a mirror of the actual article lead? --Cast (talk) 16:47, 2 September 2009 (UTC)
 * I've had an ask around about this to no definite conclusion. Personally, I think it's in the best interest of the readers of this portal, and only really becomes a problem if we submit to some sort of peer review. I'll start collecting the FA + GA articles at Portal:Anarchism/Selected article/1 etc., and once that's finished I suppose just use the same random component code as the images? I'll list articles we haven't selected already – some of them (e.g. Anarky) you'll be much better placed to write blurbs for than I, so I might leave you some of the work! Skomorokh  20:11, 4 September 2009 (UTC)


 * OK, transferring previously-selected GAs and FAs, we're up to Portal:Anarchism/Selected article/16. This leaves us with the remaining:
 * Anarky – FA, no issues with quality, minor issues with relevance, no main page blurb available. I support adding this.
 * The Illuminatus! Trilogy – FA, up to standards, main page blurb available, serious questions about relevance. I doubt we could get an anarchism-heavy blurb out of this, but I'm open to it.
 * Alexandru Bogdan-Piteşti – GA, still quality, little relevance to anarchism but enough for our purposes, I think.
 * Anarchy in Somalia – GA, of questionable quality (I say this as the primary author), some relevance to a fringe segment of anarchists but not to a reliably-documented extent. I lean towards exclusion.
 * Batman: Anarky – GA, no quality worries, enough relevance for blurb purposes. Support.


 * I recommend we exclude two of Illuminatus, Bogdan-Piteşti, and Somalia, and proceed with 20 selections. Thoughts? Skomorokh  20:52, 4 September 2009 (UTC)
 * I'm going to agree on excluding all three mentioned. I'm positive Illuminatus could provide a great blurb, but the article itself was written without any real weight given to the anarchist influence on it. Dispite several references, there is no thematic section which explains the references in context of the author's views on the subject, so that these references seem to be nothing more than absurdist attempts at non-sequitur humor (which, admittedly, most of the book was). To read that article is to read about a humorous social commentary, rather than a humorous, anarchist social commentary. As for Anarky, I recently rewrote the lead for the Portal:Comics selected article blurb. A quote regarding the character may be used in lieu of an image, as was done with the "Last of the Master" blurb. And finally, I note that the new randomized blurbs will still include links to recently featured articles. Wouldn't those entries be moot, now that a randomizer will be used? I recommend removing them completely.--Cast (talk) 02:30, 5 September 2009 (UTC)
 * The "recently featured" element will have to be removed, yes, but I'm not sure what to replace it with. If you're comfortable with the copyright implications, using quotes instead of images is fine by me. So, left to do now before implementation is get blurbs for the two Anarky articles (can I leave this to you?), rewrite some of the shoddier blurbs (i.e. for Anarcho-capitalism), and come up with a restructure of Portal:Anarchism/Selected article/Layout. Skomorokh  02:42, 5 September 2009 (UTC)
 * Okay, I've created the blurbs for Anarky and Batman: Anarky. I suggest replacing the "recently featured" element with a simple link to a tree of other selected article blurbs, as Portal:Buddhism does. Further, the restructure of the layout page may be based on Portal:Buddhism, as this was the same layout I followed in creating the section for selected quotes. The replacement for the "recently featured" element may be a simple link to this newly restructured page. What I can't wrap my head around is what to do with the former calender set up. I would rather like to use that calender of selected articles for something—perhaps to refurbish it for some new selection system, or template project—but I don't know what.--Cast (talk) 03:28, 11 September 2009 (UTC)
 * Right, all the blurbs look set to go (thanks for the Anarkys). In the absence of any other feasible option, it seems wise to link to the Selected article landing page, but I don't have any sharp ideas about how to restructure it – do we need to revamp it before implementing rotation or shall we go ahead without any link regardless? Skomorokh  00:56, 24 September 2009 (UTC)

After being away from Wikipedia for a few days, I find that no move was made to implement the article automator, and there is no October article. At what stage is progress on your end? I can help now that I'm back. --Cast (talk) 17:46, 3 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Sorry about the October entry. See last message for status – all set to go with the possible exception of Portal:Anarchism/Selected article/Layout and Portal:Anarchism/Selected article which may need changing. Skomorokh,  barbarian  23:50, 3 October 2009 (UTC)

October anniversaries complete
I've filled in the last of the redlinked October anniversaries; this leaves 37 redlinked entries for November and December. It would be great if we did not have to disable the feature this year. Skomorokh, barbarian  18:31, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

Statue of Liberty cartoon comment
Portal:Anarchism/Selected image/6 is labeled as depicting "a monstrous "European Anarchist" seeking to blow up the Statue of Liberty" and this was used in mention of threats to the SoL in the Statue of Liberty article. (See material removal and Talk:Statue of Liberty.) Is there any indication that this is what the cartoon representing? It strikes me as more likely a comment on U.S. immigration policy (represented by the SoL) allowing anarchists into the U.S. The  of this image have similar captions that are neither referenced nor discussed in the articles, and the image's Commons page does not provide anything to support their interpretation. -- ToET 05:13, 1 November 2009 (UTC)