Talk:Arab street

Clumsy phrase
I hate this neologism. As metaphorical toponymy (notwithstanding the real-life thoroughfare in Singapore, of course), it suffers from too many levels of abstraction to be catchy or clever.

Neither vivid nor incisive, the Arab Street somehow maintains the ring of ad hoc rubbish despite its overuse. Moreover, do we need another way to paint an entire ethnicity with the same brush?

Patronanejo (talk) 08:00, 12 August 2013 (UTC)
 * I have begun a needed update to the article which will get into a lot of that critique. Daniel Case (talk) 05:05, 3 September 2013 (UTC)

Is this page a spoof?
I have never ever heard of the the term "Arab Street". Is it an Americanism? Where is the presumption that other English speaking nations might not be blessed with such neologisms and haven't got a clue.
 * While researching the article I was indeed curious about this, but found nothing about whether its English-language use is limited to the American media or not (obviously, it would seem we now have at least an informal answer to that question). Without one of our reliable sources saying something about this I really do not feel comfortable just putting my own observation on that into the article. Daniel Case (talk) 18:57, 13 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Well, here's The Guardian using it in a hed. Daniel Case (talk) 04:44, 14 September 2013 (UTC)

But it would seem the editors of this page haven't got a plan either because its content makes absolutely no logical sense. Is it about the phrase, usage or the wider defining meanings of the term?
 * I would say all three, or at least two until you explain what differentiates "wider defining meanings of the term" from "usage". To put it in my own terms I would say it's about the term, its etymology, and what many commentators believe to be its negative connotations and their impact on relations between (at least) the U.S. and Arab states. Daniel Case (talk) 18:57, 13 September 2013 (UTC)

This article ranks as one of the worst I have ever seen on the main page.
 * You never saw Flag of Armenia or Spyware while they were that day's featured article, obviously. Well, normally I've had the chance to completely finish polishing and rewriting an article before it runs in DYK (Honestly, I'm glad someone read it that way ... too often no one clicks on non-sensational DYK hooks without a picture). Given that I'm busy with some other things at the moment, and the preference for nominating things to DYK within five days of beginning to create or expand it, I just got finished with what would arguably be called the first full draft late last night North American Eastern time, about 12–13 hours ago. For one thing, I haven't had the chance yet to rewrite the intro in a way that reflects the article as it has actually turned out. Daniel Case (talk) 18:57, 13 September 2013 (UTC)

And to compound its failure to explain the subject in layman's terms, the writers have fallen on the old trick of sesquipedalianism ie to stick loads of high-brow words into the text in the hope most readers won't read through the bullshit.
 * See above. And it would be helpful (if, of course, you posted this comment out of some genuine intent to be helpful, and aren't just pissed off because your life partner just left you, the pubkeeper won't extend your tab for yet another month until you pay up and your favorite club lost badly last weekend) if you would provide some examples. The quoted matter, I can't do anything about, but one can always improve one's own prose. Daniel Case (talk) 18:57, 13 September 2013 (UTC)

If Arab Street is a phrase it should be in the wiktionary if it means something more, then please can someone rewrite this article so it can at least make sense. 86.160.104.118 (talk) 17:34, 13 September 2013 (UTC)
 * It has been my intent to write a wiktionary entry as well when I got/get done with all this*. However, since there are more than a few academic papers and/or book chapters which discuss this in a non-trivial fashion, we can and should have an encyclopedia article on it as well. As for further writing or rewriting, well, your help would always be appreciated. Daniel Case (talk) 18:57, 13 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Oops, it seems that there has been one for quite some time now. But I did redefine it. Daniel Case (talk) 04:54, 14 September 2013 (UTC)