Wikipedia:Mediation Cabal/Cases/1 11 2005 Philadelphia County and other Philadelphia Pages

Philadelphia County and other Philadelphia Pages

Issue at Hand

 * Mediation requested by:
 * evrik (talk) 15:51, 1 November 2005


 * Who's involved?
 * evrik, Boothy443, others.


 * What's going on?
 * POV warring. Mainly should the County and City Pages exist seperately?

Here are some of the pages going back and forth:
 * Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania
 * Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
 * List of Philadelphia neighborhoods
 * Category:Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania
 * Reading Terminal Headhouse
 * Reading Terminal Market


 * ''What would you like to change about that?
 * I'd like to be able to get an unbiased opinion.


 * If you'd prefer we work discreetly, how can we reach you?
 * n/a

Evrik's position

 * Evrik is currently serving his 3RR block, so he emailed me and asked me to post this. Dmcdevit·t 18:39, 2 November 2005 (UTC)


 * Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania
 * My position - Having a separate page on the history of the county is fine, but maintaining a separate CATEGORY is duplicative. Get rid of the Philadelphia Category.
 * Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
 * My position - This page is fine. It should be placed under the category Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and not Philadelphia County.
 * List of Philadelphia neighborhoods
 * Market East is not a neighborhood, but is a five block stretch of the street and a SEPTA station. Also, this should get its own listing under Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
 * Reading Terminal Headhouse
 * Market East is not a neighborhood.
 * Reading Terminal Market
 * It should be placed under the category Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and not Philadelphia Cuisine.

Boothy's position

 * Philadelphia County and other Philadelphia Pages - i am not involving my self in a RFM by a vandal


 * --Boothy443 | trácht ar 16:18, 1 November 2005 (UTC)


 * The link to Boothy's one and only comment is here.evrik 15:56, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

Comment from Sensor
This has become a tempest in a teapot over an extremely obscure point of law. I do not have a dog in this fight but have participated in the debate.

A revert war with some nasty undertones has erupted between two users as to whether Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania should be listed as a category in the main article about Philadelphia. I have posted various statutes at the article's talk page on this issue. My opinion, which I feel is unbiased, is that based on the statutes cited, Philadelphia County has an independent legal existence but has no legal functions whatsoever, having all been assumed by the City of Philadelphia. I believe the Pennsylvania Constitution, the Pennsylvania Unconsolidated Statutes, and the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter all make this very clear.

A related issue is whether the Philadelphia County article should be merged into the Philadelphia article, although that no longer appears to be as much as a dispute (all seem to agree that the County article can remain as is). I have not participated in the Reading Terminal and neighborhood discussions, so I take no position as to them. - Sensor 23:37, 1 November 2005 (UTC)

Additional comment from Sensor
It appears as if another revert war over the same damn issue of the Philadelphia County category is currently going on between anonymous users. This is really starting to get out of hand. - Sensor 03:00, 3 November 2005 (UTC)

Commentary

 * It seems to me that one party is overreacting (Boothy443) and is changing the edits of the other user (evrik) out of spite. Boothy443 is getting nasty and evrik is goading him, Boothy443 is now going after other articles out of spite.
 * On another note, Boothy443 is now making up articles for the different neighborhoods and then attributing them to the Philadelphia County Category after the fact (there is no kingsessing, manayunk, etc existing outside Philadephia city). The truth is that the county does exist legally, but that most of it's functions are being down by the city. Having two pages, one for the county, and one for the city makes sense, but wikipedia doesn't need multiple categories. In one of the discussion notes other city/counties are referenced - and how they don't have separate pages.


 * My Thoughts
 * I definitely agree with keeping Philadelphia County as a separate article, but beyond its subservience to the City government there is no reason to list sections of the City within the category of Philadelphia County. If we followed this line of thinking, EVERYTHING having to do with Philadelphia the city would also have to be within the category of Phiadelphia County.  This seems redundant and not the way Wikipedians do things.  The county article should remain as it stands, but should not have its own category unless more articles about the county arise that are not connected to the city.  (That's alot of obscure and non-pressing research, so I doubt anyone will actually do it.)


 * To User:Boothy443, I am usually on the same page as you when it comes to your editing logic, but please play nice and be respectful, or you make your position next to impossible to support.
 * Thanks, CobaltBlueTony 14:49, 2 November 2005 (UTC)

Proposed solution for Category:Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania
I've created the article Act of Consolidation, 1854 as one more item which can utilize the county category. And I think if we do our historical research right, we can find or create more items to utilize this category. I cannot think that there is nothing else which could not fit ameniably into this category. - CobaltBlueTony 19:13, 3 November 2005 (UTC)