Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2015 May 18

= May 18 =

Are there Wikipedians who...?
Has anyone here met any Wikipedians who believe in either both or one of the following two?:

1. The abundance of B-class articles does not make Wikipedia a great resource, even though they know that an average readers (including me) are not left wanting after reading one (which means the B-class serves its purpose for people except for, maybe, experts who wouldn't have researched the topic in the first place).

2. Anything outside the scope of Encyclopedia Britannica (or a ″traditional″ encyclopedia) is unencyclopedic.

76.176.28.235 (talk) 01:23, 18 May 2015 (UTC)


 * The question as formulated is not appropriate for this Reference Desk. There would be no published sources detailing which Wikipedians have met which other Wikipedians, and what the latter may or not believe.  This should go on some forum.  --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  01:28, 18 May 2015 (UTC)


 * Which forum? 76.176.28.235 (talk) 03:08, 18 May 2015 (UTC)
 * The help desk or teahouse, perhaps. Or maybe Wikipediocracy's. InedibleHulk (talk) 21:16, 18 May 2015 (UTC)


 * There are registered editors at Wikipedia, and that doesn't count those such as yourself who have chosen to contribute to the encyclopedia without registering an account.  That about guarantees a level of diversity-of-opinion that one can guarantee that there is at least one of those people who believes anything.  More broadly, if you want to read general reading which might interest you, see This page and This page and perhaps this page.  You can find links from each of those to lead you more places where the general concept of what is, and is not, appropriate for inclusion at Wikipedia are discussed, and historical background to those opinions can be found.  -- Jayron 32 01:32, 18 May 2015 (UTC)
 * I asked this because I was appalled by the assumptions made on Wikipedia is failing, which shows that there are those who believe so (at least in the previous decade). 76.176.28.235 (talk) 03:08, 18 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Read the pages I linked for you for background. -- Jayron 32 03:31, 18 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Also re-read the disclaimer at that page: This essay contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. Essays are not Wikipedia policies or guidelines. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints..
 * I suggest you discuss your concerns at that page's talk page. --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  06:55, 18 May 2015 (UTC)

Is there any U.S. accrediting organization that has a comprehensive list of all the foreign colleges and universities that are recognized in the U.S.?
I'm particularly interested in the U.S. accredited schools in East Asia and South East Asia.Rja2015 (talk) 16:20, 18 May 2015 (UTC)


 * The way to go about this is to contact the admissions office of the US school you are thinking of attending, and asking their criteria. μηδείς (talk) 17:50, 18 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Not comprehensive, but: Lists_of_American_institutions_of_higher_education 73.149.42.231 (talk) 18:33, 18 May 2015 (UTC)
 * It might help, Rja, if you'd clarify your interest. Do you want overseas branches of accredited American Universities?  Do you want to know which overseas credits you can transfer to the US while in the middle of a bachelor's degree?  Or do you want to know which undergraduate degrees from oversees will help you to apply to graduate school in the US?  Be aware there is no official (beyond for purposes of accepting gov't funds) US accrediting agency.  For example, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education is the accrediting agency for Cornell, Rutgers, Rowam Princeton, and New York University and many other schools, but it is a voluntary and non-governmental association. μηδείς (talk) 21:23, 18 May 2015 (UTC)

Difference
Is there a difference between "futas", "trannys", "shemales" and "ladyboys" or are they all terms for the same thing? 117.163.109.209 (talk) 19:10, 18 May 2015 (UTC)
 * You should read the Wikipedia article titled transgender, and then follow additional links from that article to further educate yourself on this concept. -- Jayron 32 19:23, 18 May 2015 (UTC)

Referencing Wikipedia/using limited content from Wikipedia
MESSAGE:

We would like to reference a few articles we have seen on Wikipedia, on our newly created Web page for Highlander fans. We would also like to post a small amount of content about those articles (the information coming from the Wikipedia article), then place a link on our page beneath it to direct people to Wikipedia to read the whole article.

There are currently over 1000 regular contributes to Wikipedia. Is there a special individual from whom permission must be obtained to quote content from a site on Wikipedia? Are there any legal issues we should be aware of before proceeding to use (a small amount of) content form these articles and to assign a link back to Wikipedia to read the entire entry?174.25.208.72 (talk) 20:50, 18 May 2015 (UTC)
 * See WP:CW for our page on the subject. This sort of question might be better at the Help Desk. Tevildo (talk) 20:59, 18 May 2015 (UTC)


 * You can even copy entire articles (or the entire encyclopedia). You can modify them, as well. All that's asked in return is that you acknowledge the article with a hyperlink and share any derivative works under a similar license. The "free" in "free encyclopedia" means more than not costing money. InedibleHulk (talk) 21:02, 18 May 2015 (UTC)

Greatest number of Dead in a Biker-Gang dispute
Can anyone give a source for a higher one-day [incident] death toll than ten for a US biker-gang shootout? The issue is currently being debated at In_the_news/Candidates and it is being asserted that this is a common occurrence in the US. I don't remember Altamont, but that was a few dead, one by stabbing, and not a shootout. Thanks. μηδείς (talk) 21:34, 18 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Following the references from this BBC article, and from our Outlaw motorcycle club article, the previous two largest incidents were the Milperra massacre (seven deaths, Australia) and the Shedden massacre (eight deaths, Canada, not a shootout). The previous largest US incident was the River Run Riot, with three deaths. Tevildo (talk) 21:50, 18 May 2015 (UTC)
 * The Toronto Sun has a roundup, too. The Quebec Biker War takes the cake at 164, but that wasn't all in one go (and, unsurprisingly, not American). InedibleHulk (talk) 22:34, 18 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Hehe, thanks for the answers so far, the assertion that this was a regular thing seemed odd, since I am almost as old as Bilbo Baggins, and pay closer attention to the interweb and US News. μηδείς (talk) 22:53, 18 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Hard to avoid US news, wherever we are. Even if we used school shooting standards, this is still pretty huge. Domestic dispute murder-suicides seem to hit the ceiling at eight. I don't know what comparable street gang massacre Masem seems to believe in, but he's right that the kind of crap in the American district of the Middle East puts the homeland death tolls to shame. That's not a fair measuring stick for things like this. InedibleHulk (talk) 23:05, 18 May 2015 (UTC)
 * By American district of the Middle East, what do you mean? To me the American middle east means Pennsylvania.  Does this have something to do with the US Government, like the Waco Massacre?  Or with the Islamist Jihadi, Nidal Hasan?  I thought the issue was biker gang violence, although I may not have known what I meant when I posted this.  Assuming I did know what I meant, is there an American biker massacre of similar proportions?  And if so, when? Thanks. μηδείς (talk) 01:31, 19 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Iraq, Afghanistan, sort of Yemen, sort of Syria. Masem was saying this was run-of-the-mill, by their standards. Within the continental US, this seems to be among the highest tolls for any shootout, and more certainly the highest single gang-related one. InedibleHulk (talk) 03:33, 19 May 2015 (UTC)
 * I had edit-conflicted with Tevildo and wanted to point out what Template:OutlawMotorcycleGroups lists under "Related events" (most of which have been mentioned by now), and that none of them seemed to include an event exceeding the recent death toll in Waco. Masem's point was a different one, which doesn't mean you don't have a strong argument, but that part needs to be discussed there, medeis, not here, as you well know. ---Sluzzelin talk  01:37, 19 May 2015 (UTC)


 * Dunno about actual numbers of deaths - but some of the Mods and rockers biker fights in England in the 1960's and 70's had upwards of a thousand combatants armed with knives, bike chains and many other improvised weapons. These fights went on for days and the police were powerless to intervene in any significant manner.  Oddly, I can't find any numbers for deaths and injuries - but the lack of guns probably saved a lot of lives. 24.242.75.217 (talk) 16:57, 19 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Has anyone ever managed to kill someone with a bike chain? Seems like a lot of work. InedibleHulk (talk) 19:45, 19 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Paul D. Jones, Groton, Massachusetts, January 28, 1996. That took some tracking down, but it _has_ happened. Tevildo (talk) 01:05, 20 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Apparently, an undercover cop infiltrating a biker gang was killed by a chain, but that was on CSI. And there was Chain Letter, but neither of those were bike chains. You know something's rare when it doesn't even happen on TV. InedibleHulk (talk) 19:51, 19 May 2015 (UTC)
 * If you extend your search to include Garrotes, you'll find more hits. Certainly a bike chain can be used as a functional garrote. SemanticMantis (talk) 21:32, 19 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Yeah, that's true. Can wrap it around a fist, too. I was only thinking of the whipping. InedibleHulk (talk) 21:59, 19 May 2015 (UTC)
 * In any case, in Texas, anything designed or adapted for the purpose of causing "serious bodily injury" is a "deadly weapon". It doesn't have to have ever killed anyone. Doesn't even have to ever caused serious injury. So that covers every solid object. InedibleHulk (talk) 22:07, 19 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Or no solid object that has another purpose at all, depending how you read it. InedibleHulk (talk) 22:13, 19 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Thanks, that last link is interesting stuff. Living in TX currently, I am actually pleased to see that there is legal precedent for an automobile being considered a deadly weapon. SemanticMantis (talk) 22:24, 19 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Even when it doesn't kill or injure anyone, if it just happens to be there when you're arrested, it may be seized and auctioned off by the time you post bail.
 * And no, you don't get a cut of that. InedibleHulk (talk) 22:32, 19 May 2015 (UTC)