Talk:The Octagon House

Copy vio?
I'm sorely tempted to place a copyvio template on this page since it is copied verbatim from http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/wash/dc22.htm. However, is it a copyvio if the source does not carry a copyright notice? It's blatant plagiarism all the same, but is it a copyvio if there's no stated copyright? --Canonblack 10:24, 9 October 2006 (UTC)
 * [EDIT] The same passage, again verbatim, appears on this page as well as the second of three sections in a much longer write up.  This page does carry a copyright notice, however it also has a link to the NPS page cited above.  So which came first, and if NPS is the original source, is it free use?  And if it's free use, shouldn't NPS be credited here? --Canonblack 10:31, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

According to the public domain page...

Works of the United States Government and various other governments are excluded from copyright law and may therefore be considered to be in the public domain.

and since this came from an nps page I think it's covered, but I should source it.
 * [EDIT] It's listed as the reference. What more do you think should be done?

Cranor 04:13, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

WikiProject class rating
This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as stub, and the rating on other projects was brought up to Stub class. BetacommandBot 16:12, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

Hexagon, not Octagon
I wish there were a section describing how the house got the name "Octagon," when in actuality it's shaped like a hexagon. I don't know the answer. Does anyone? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:601:E04:F77:F55C:435F:162C:E965 (talk) 15:41, 11 November 2017 (UTC)

U.S. Presidents do not ratify treaties
As of the date I'm posing this the article contains the text "President Madison ratified the Treaty of Ghent, ...". No. Wrong. The Senate RATIFIES a Treaty. The President SIGNS it.For instance, in the article on the Kennedy-era Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, we find that President Kennedy SIGNED the Treaty on 7 October 1963, while the Senate RATIFIED the Treaty on 24 September 1963. I am increasingly frustrated with this sort of content from Wikipedia. I think that if this kind of disregard of the fact that "signed" and "ratified" are two different words were to occur in someone's Master's Thesis or even a term-paper of an undergrad, it would be rejected. And yet we find people like this writing for Wikipedia all the time.2600:8804:8C40:31:1C64:8308:33BC:E2D6 (talk) 19:11, 11 June 2023 (UTC)Christopher L. Simpson