2020-08-11

Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Hockey stick controversy

IMG_20200725_082845_240 Alas poor HSC, I knew it well. Too well perhaps. You can still view its magnificent bloated final state at archive.is, but if you visit the original wiki URL you'll now get redirected to Hockey stick graph. The delete discussion is at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Hockey stick controversy. I think the decision itself is arguably wrong, and indeed I argued against it; certainly some of the arguments for delete were weird.

My keep rational was
I think the controversy is notable. Arguably the article is too long, but that can be fixed by shortening, not deleting it. Also I don't think its a fork; it is its own subject. Saying it gives undue weight to the political debate is somewhat odd, because the political debate is the main point of the controversy.
G replied but the political debate was not in good faith, that's the point. The "controversy" was engineered and sustained by the climate change denial industry which to my mind is just wrong, because, as I said That the controversy was not in good faith is irrelevant to the deletion debate; that's a discussion about the page content. FWIW, though, I do not believe that the debate was entirely or originally "engineered"; it would be better to say that the flames of what could have been a valid scientific discussion were fanned out of all proportion. And of course the degree of plausibility of debate has changed over time; nowadays, with multiple independent repros, there's nothing left, scientifically, but this article isn't (shouldn't be) about the science. You are I think right that the page is too huge and doubtless duplicates much that is in the HS page.

But maybe this is a sign o' the times: all these controversies we so lovingly participated in, in the olde dayes, are of no interest to yoof today: the HS is just accepted, unless you're a nutter.

Refs


* Pic: cat of Troyes.

3 comments:

  1. It would seem that given the existential threat posed by what is certainly global warming it would be wise to keep for a short time at least, few decades, a history of the political and social disagreements concerning the shape of a graph of some key physical measurements. Almost any measurements associated with this global threat will result in a hockey stick shaped graph, maybe pointing up and sometimes down, but for sure if data is developing a hockey stick-shaped curve something important is happening. Now is not particularly the right time to dismiss some of the arguments pro and con of this important question just to save some computer memory.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Arguably too long???

    I don't think there is an argument.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The germ theory of disease is just accepted, unless you're a nutter.

    https://www.ocala.com/news/20200811/marion-county-deputies-ordered-not-to-wear-masks

    ReplyDelete