Talk:Blackball

--50.104.207.91 (talk) 02:20, 17 December 2013 (UTC)==Ancient Greek Voting==

Untitled
Dimly I remember my old college history professor say something about the ancient Greeks, where they took turns taking a ball out of a sack, and the person who got the black ball ended up getting some government duty. It was something that was not wanted by the person getting the black ball, as it was extra work. Does anyone know anything about this?

Freemasonry
I'm surprised that no one has spotted that there's no reference to Freemasonry in this entry, nor has anyone corrected it. I think we've all been sleeping on the job. What the?!? :P


 * Modern masonry dates back essentially to the 18th century (first Grand Lodge in 1717) whereas the origins of the blackball lie in ancient Greece, where people were ostracised by use of the ostrakhon (shell or potsherd) as a ballot in voting: see ostracize.  There is no reference to the blackball in the long article on Freemasonry and, although freemasons may use the blackball, they are no different in this respect from any other private club. So I propose to modify the suggestion that the blackball began with freemasons whilst adding a reference to freemasons elsewhere.  Chelseaboy 17:00, 8 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Blackballing Is also a form of male hazing ritual in which the victim's genitals are covered in black shoe polish. Common in the British boarding schools and some fraternities. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 999th choice (talk • contribs) 21:41, 13 March 2010 (UTC)

Blacklist?
Do the terms blackball, blacklist relate or what other terms relate to the phenomenon on the internet where contributors, participants on internet forums, listserv forums are excluded by another contributor, participant or by a moderator's editorial privilege used unfairly?...

Requested move
Blackball (blacklist) → Blackballing – Naming conventions prefer using the gerund of verbs and it would obviate the need to have "(blacklist)" in the title. -- Kjkolb 07:10, 30 September 2006 (UTC)

Moving Talk:Blackballing to the Talk:Blackball (dab), which is where the actual article is now! Dunno why the talk page didn't go with it. Have to do this via WP:RM as there's alrady something at Talk:Blackball now (just a redirect to Talk:Blackballing). &mdash; SMcCandlish &#91;talk&#93; &#91;contrib&#93; ツ 04:08, 22 February 2007 (UTC)


 * I completed the move requested at WP:RM. I confess to not quite understanding which talk page goes with which article here, but if SMcCandlish says it all makes sense, I'll trust him. -GTBacchus(talk) 10:04, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Thanks. :-)  It worked fine. &mdash;  SMcCandlish &#91;talk&#93; &#91;contrib&#93; ツ 02:25, 1 March 2007 (UTC)