Talk:Ropework

Not a "How To"
I removed the entire section on "how to make rope" because it is not encyclopedic and against Wikipedia policy. See WP:NOTHOWTO.--Bodybagger (talk) 22:50, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

The front page probably needs a tag to remove howto content, but I am too lazy to figure out how. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.72.202.72 (talk) 02:56, 26 September 2010 (UTC)

Justification for removal of sections
I decided to remove the sections on whipping line, fusing line, and daisy chaining, because I felt that were essentially how-to guides. As Bodybagger noted previously that is against Wikipedia policy WP:NOTHOWTO. However, the changes were reverted due to lack of justification.ItinerantTinkerer (talk) 02:25, 17 June 2010 (UTC)


 * Cutting the entire section because it's a how-to is a bit too bold of an edit. While the sections are very how-toish, the subjects of sections mentioned are important parts of marlinspike seamanship (which you non-floaty people call 'ropework').  A better edit (which I'll get around to any day now, I'm sure - oh - I just did one for daisy chain) would be to cut the excessive how-to and explain the subject - or just put in a "How to" tag like the unsigned commenter mentioned (which, of course, I also don't know how to do) and leave it to other editors if you don't have the time, energy, or knowledge to edit the sections yourself. CruiserBob (talk) 02:37, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Detailed explanation of my recent edits (because that one line just doesn't give me enough space)
1. i.e. to e.g. - i.e. implies that these are the only applications of daisy chaining; e.g. means that these are examples 2. boating/canoeing to boating, climbing: for this purpose boating includes canoeing, and climbing (oops - went back and fixed that, I meant it to say climbing) is another activity that shows up in a lot of the higher entries on google - since I said e.g. we don't have to have a comprehensive list. 3. removing 'same process that backpackers use' - very backpacking centered. Which would be great, if this was Backpackerpedia. Also, not as a way to avoid citing it, but as a way to explain for someone who might want to come up with a citation - in all my years as a backpacker, I can count on one hand the backpackers (not climbers who were backpacking to wear they were climbing, mind you) who I ran into who could (or maybe just did) daisy chain a rope. Among the non-climbing hikers, for the small amount of rope they typically carried, the usual storage method seemed to be "coil it up, and swear at it a bit when it's time to use it again". 4. the change to 'for storage instead of utility' - why yes, I'm sure the boaters don't care about utility, they just do it to store things. Well, maybe not. Everybody who uses these use it to make it easy to use from storage (unless they're like my wife, and would use it to make them 'look tidy').

It's probably still a bit too much how-to, but it's better than it was.

Since I don't have a copy of Ashley handy (I used to have one, I wonder which move it got lost in), and I'm not sure which of the rest of my nautical books has details about daisy chaining, I'm going to have to leave it til later (or more likely to one of my worthy co-editors) to provide a good cite or two - there are more than a few just by googling daisy chain (with climbing or boating to filter out the chaff of other sorts of daisy chains), but it's also past my bedtime, and when I cite, I prefer to have something a bit more authoritative than "Some guy on the internet said it." OK, now I have to answer the peanut gallery about "Well, then why did you make these changes?" Because as a boater and backpacker, these online references match my experiences and my recollections of the reference books I'd be citing if I wasn't on my way to bed. OK, now really time for bed. CruiserBob (talk) 02:42, 16 February 2011 (UTC)