User:Born2cycle/arbcom-pro-life-long

I have not been involved in this particular issue until yesterday, after the informal mediation was closed 2 days prior, when I stumbled upon the pro-life article at the new title, and took a while to realize where I was, and dig into what happened, and how. Since then I've commented on the informal mediation decision and will summarize here. I believe that this is an excellent case for ArbCom to take because much of it exemplifies a recurring behavior problem associated with article title decision-making: the ignoring of policy, particularly, WP:AT. The purpose of WP:AT is arguably specifically to avoid conflicts like this. We've had them before. We've resolved them before. We've developed consensus about how to resolve them, and we've reflected that consensus in policy, at WP:AT, precisely so that conflicts like this would be avoided in the future. It's not perfect, of course, but it's very clear on the key issues at play here. That's why I think it's a behavior problem to blatantly ignore the key relevant guidance given in policy at WP:AT, as was done in this case in moving Pro-life movement to Opposition to the legalisation of abortion. WP:AT was ignored in this decision in at least the following ways: 1. Despite WP:POVTITLE being very clear about how WP:COMMONNAME and neutrality complement each other in title selection (in short, following most common usage in reliable sources is being neutral), in his statement the closing admin implied that there is a conflict between neutrality and the name suggested by COMMONNAME, and that we should follow neutrality since it's a pillar and COMMONNAME is not. This policy-ignoring (policy-ignorant?) view was revealed in at least two phrases in the closing commentary: "While policy around common names etc. on this issue can be debated, I think the debate has come down firmly on the side of neutrality, ... " and "be aware that neutrality - not COMMONNAME - is one of the Five Pillars of the project.". The implication is that we don't have to follow COMMONNAME when the name it indicates is "not neutral" because we are more beholden to "neutrality", when policy clearly states the near opposite: following COMMONNAME is being consistent with neutrality because "True neutrality means we do not impose our opinions over that of the sources, even when our opinion is that the name used by the sources is judgmental.". The closing admin, and apparently many who participated in the discussion and influenced his thinking, were apparently unaware of this aspect of policy (and, thus, consensus), much less showed any appreciation for it. 2. Another aspect of WP:AT that was ignored was WP:PRIMARYTOPIC, which has been of crucial importance to countless title decisions. The closing admin clearly depended largely on the work of mediator Steven Zhang, who found so much significance in the fact that "Pro-Life" has uses other than the "anti abortion", that he has continued to argue that point even after the mediation was closed. But during the mediation discussion he made this statement: "Opposition to [pro-life] state that these terms are ambiguous, ... There was also the issue that Pro-life is not a specific term, and that it could also refer to other topics." The closing admin indicated the influence of this position in the following declaration: "the common name for the phenomenon varies so wildly over the English-speaking world that it cannot be pinned down with any accuracy." But according to policy the position is irrelevant! If I may quote from WP:PRIMARYTOPIC:

If someone enters "pro-life" in the Search box does anyone doubt what topic they are searching for? With respect to considering ambiguity of meaning of candidate names in deciding titles, that's our only concern, according to consensus and policy. And yet here was are discounting "pro-life" because it's "ambiguous" and "not a specific term", without regard to whether the topic is primary for "pro-life", (much less "Pro-life movement") which it obviously is. 3. WP:COMMONNAME was of course ignored. Zhang admits that "pro-life/pro-choice" are of most common usage: "As for common usage, of course there's going to be more usage for pro-life and pro-choice". His IAR "good reason" for ignoring COMMONNAME is that pro-life/pro-choice is mostly American usage. That's true, but as the content of the articles clearly demonstrate to anyone who reads them, these issues are primarily American! Hence, American usage should be expected by most readers, and is therefore the most recognizable and natural choices for the title. In fact, the titles they came up with are so unnatural I have to look them up every time I need to quote them. So the principal naming criteria:

is another aspect of WP:AT they ignored, since the current titles are less natural and less concise than the original titles, and arguably less recognizable. Even on consistency the original titles should be preferred since I believe there is no precedent for the title "Support for the legalisation of abortion", but "Name movement" is a common pattern used in our titles. With respect to precision it's a wash. 4. The part of policy that is probably most blatantly ignored by Zhang and the closing admin is WP:TITLECHANGES, which states:

Here are Zhang's words:

Zhang went on to propose his invented titles that the closing admin eventually endorsed: "The articles will be moved in line with Steven Zhang's suggestion".

Yes, this is a contentious issue. But it's only contentious because many involved, including Zhang and the closing admin, refuse to follow the very policy designed to avoid this kind of contention! Zhang openly admits this when he says, "in a normal situation ignoring policies is not something I'd advise against in a normal situation, but in this instance, there is a lot of dispute over the name of the article, and in situations like this, we agree that this would be a situation where invoking IAR would be appropriate. "

I implore ArbCom to rule that renaming articles on a basis that involves such a blatant disregard for consensus as reflected in policy is unacceptable behavior, as it opens the floodgates for anyone to move just about any article with little more basis than personal preference.

We have a policy that is designed to resolve these conflicts. It works. People just have to follow it and the only problem here is the refusal to do so.

Thank you. --Born2cycle (talk) 21:10, 3 August 2011 (UTC)