User talk:JASpencer/RFC

=Request for Comment on Masonic articles=

The Problem
I think that there has been a generally problematic pattern of behaviour with an unnecesarily restrictive attitude to articles relating to Freemasonry from editors who are Freemasons. I believe tha there are a number of reasons for this:


 * A wish to keep the number of articles to a manageable size so that they can be monitored by a limited number of editors. Also a stated wish to delete categories, such as Category:Freemasons, so that the list pages that replace them can be kept under control
 * Suspicion of the motives of editors who edit these articles who are not Freemasons, which leads to a policy of seeking topic bans on editors or to hound them off the project
 * A strong belief that certain things are not to be known by outsiders (similar to the controversy on Images of Muhammed, which mainly affects Masonic ritual
 * Beliefs that standards in WP:ORG should be interpreted so that almost no local lodges should be listed no matter how notable they are
 * A belief that WP:BUILDING should not apply to them - for example trying to delete or rename builidings on the National Register of Historic Buildings) or to delete them despite the notability if they have the word "Lodge" in them
 * A belief that Masonic traditions that are not consistent with the United Grand Lodge of England have no merit and should either be denigrated or deleted.
 * A tendency to vote together as a bloc on deletion and policy discussions

There is a reasonably tight set of editors, some of whom display this set of behaviours more consistently than others, but all of whom are Freemasons.

General Results
This has resulted in a number of issues, mainly:
 * Less coverage of these topics than would otherwise have been done
 * A willingness to bite the newbies if they are editing in this space
 * A far larger amount of admin and policy taken up with this area should merit
 * A turgid prose style
 * Some very partisan editing

What can be done to ensure that these editors are not engaging in a way that they believe that they own this area and can restrict coverage in a way inconsistent with Wikipedia? Permanent topic bans in my opinion are not viable as these editors are often the only editors who pay any interest in this area and so the area is in danger of atrophying.

Lodges
There seems to be a misunderstanding of WP:ORG which says that local organisations are "mostly" not notable, but we seem to have seen a long list of notable referenced lodges that have been put up for deletion.


 * Articles for deletion/Solomon's Lodge - Oldest Lodge in Georgia, referred to as the "mother lodge", large number of influential politicans involved over the years, arguably oldest lodge in the Americas
 * Articles for deletion/Phoenix Lodge - Oldest lodge in Sunderland, in Grade I listed building
 * Articles for deletion/St. John's Lodge - Redirect for a large number of lodges.
 * Articles for deletion/New Welcome Lodge - a lodge brought into being by the Prince of Wales to bring Labour MPs into Freemasonry and the Establishment, credited with influencing the 1935 Labour leadership election
 * Articles for deletion/St. John's Lodge, Portsmouth, New Hampshire - oldset lodge in New Hampshire, large number of influential politicians among members, also claims to be oldest continuing lodge in America
 * Articles for deletion/Areopagus Lodge - First Masonic lodge in Brazil, involved in an attemptes pro-French separatist coup
 * Articles for deletion/Grand Lodge of Iowa building
 * Articles for deletion/Grand Lodge of Idaho
 * Articles for deletion/Grand Lodge of Kansas

Continental Freemasonry

 * Articles for deletion/CLIPSAS
 * Articles for deletion/Sons of Haiti
 * Articles for deletion/Gran Logia de la República de Venezuela
 * Articles for deletion/International Masonic Union Catena
 * Articles for deletion/International Secretariat of the Masonic Adogmatic Powers
 * Articles for deletion/Grand Lodge of Armenia
 * Articles for deletion/Großorient von Österreich

Others

 * Articles for deletion/Masonic Temple (Lahore)
 * Articles for deletion/Tracing board
 * Articles for deletion/Jahbulon (3rd nomination)
 * Articles for deletion/Jahbulon (2nd nomination)
 * Articles for deletion/Jahbulon
 * Articles for deletion/Great Architect of the Universe
 * Articles for deletion/Swedenborg Rite