Category talk:Detainees of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp

The concern that there are too many subcategories

Today a wikipedian chose to express their concern that this category has too many subcategories.

But they neglected to say why they thought the number of subcategories was a problem.

I suggested they consider explaining why their concern here.

They are the second person to express a concern about the subcategories. The first person, in spite of repeated requests, proved unwilling or unable to explain their concerns.

I have played a major role in expanding the wikipedia's coverage of the Guantanamo captives, and the the articles that address issues arising from their detention. I started the subcategories these two wikipedians have raised concerns about. They have proven useful to me.

I told the first guy I was new to starting categories, and I would be very appreciative if he would take the time to offer me the benefit of his experience as to where I was going wrong. He made a few comments, like that these should really be list articles, not categories. Well, I have started a bunch of articles, related to these subcategories, like: al Farouq training camp, Casio F91W, allegations that Tablighi Jamaat is tied to terrorism, al Qaida guest house, Faisalabad, and over a dozen others.

I continue to use these categories to expand the wikipedia's coverage of the captives, and related issues.

One of the points I made to the first wikipedian to raise concerns was that while you and I that earlier fellow, might think some of these subcategories are built around trivial things to be concerned about -- "beneath notice" was his term, IIRC, but those that were offered as justifications for the captives' continued detention, shows that they were not considered trivial by the Guantanamo analysts who compiled the allegations. In my opinion that makes them notable.

Cheers! -- Geo Swan 01:58, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

Make your minds up, initial letter of first or last name for categorising

OK, under the "A" section of the category we have both Shaker Aamer, Yakub Abahanov (A from lastname) and Abdul Karim Irgashive, Abdul Latif Nasir (A from first name). The categorisation needs to be cleaned up. Either use the initial letter of the first name, or the initial letter of the last name, or ensure all names are listed in a common format, eg: "family-names, personal names". It's ridiculous to include in the "A" category anyone with any part of their name beginning with "A", which appears to be the current means of categorising. DMcMPO11AAUK/Talk/Contribs 03:22, 8 March 2008 (UTC)

Almost all of the captives who were held in Guantanamo had Arabic names, or names that followed the Arabic style. In the European style of names we have an inherited surname that comes at the end of the name. We go to great efforts to sort names on the surname first, then the given names. Many people come from cultures that use inherited surnames, but which place that surname at the beginning of the name. This is the style in China and Japan. In the Arabic style there are no inherited surnames. Sons use their father's first name as their last name. So every generation has a different surname. Pashtuns also generally use this style. I have been told that Iranians, Turks, and Pakistanis use a style of inherited last-name/surnames, similar to the European style, as it seems do some of the captives born in the former Soviet Union. Some of the individuals born in Europe or Canada seem to have been named by their parents according to the European style. And of course David Hicks uses the European style. But these exceptions account for less than ten percent of the population.

The main reason why captives' names keep ending up being (inappropriately) sorted according to the European style is that there have been some rogue bots and robot assisted editing tools that shoehorned the names into the European style. Geo Swan (talk) 09:58, 6 December 2009 (UTC)

Guantanamo captives

May I ask, why is this category not called by a name simpler, more straightforward, and more likely to be the target of searches, such as Category:Guantanamo detainees or Category:Guantanamo captives?

Anarchangel (talk) 09:55, 10 March 2012 (UTC)