Talk:Drift whale

A fact from Drift whale appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 26 June 2018 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that the Icelandic word for "drift whale" translates as "windfall", since the washed-up carcass provides meat, blubber, fat, and other benefits to the finders (pictured)?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2018/June. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Drift whale.

Wikipedia

Lots more to do

I intend to rewrite and expand the sections on rights and on food resources; I have many sources. I also need to add categories, and check the cross-linking, but that's enough for today, so I've removed the "in use" template. Carbon Caryatid (talk) 01:01, 13 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

A new source: Dolphin on Christmas menu for Cornwall's roadkill chef. Carbon Caryatid (talk) 15:50, 29 June 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Drift whale

User:Largoplazo Apparently I stepped on your turf. The article was reformed and carefully edited. Putting that aside, and where NOW is the alleged copyright violation? Carbon Caryatid is an interested party. 7&6=thirteen (☎) 19:19, 14 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@7&6=thirteen: Please don't post the same message in multiple places because it's a nuisance to maintain a conversation in two places.

There's no turf issue here. I think it may just be that you are mistaking revision deletion for deletion of an article.

The copyvio is in the revision for which I've submitted the deletion request. Like all prior versions of any page here, this version has remained in the article's revision history. Because this version contains the copyrighted text, I've submitted this version for deletion, as is appropriate, so that this version isn't visible to the general public. The current content of the article isn't relevant to this; if I thought something was wrong with the current content, then I'd be taking action over that. (If you made your last two edits because you thought I was still finding problems with the current content, that's incorrect.)

For more information about revision deletion, see WP:Revision deletion. Largoplazo (talk) 19:41, 14 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

We agree. I posted it on your page so that you would know (for sure) that the problem had been addressed. And why. I posted it on this page because it really belongs here.

I was only about fixing the problem. Edited out the questioned text. Ordinarily, since I add my own text, I do not have copyvio or close paraphrasing problems. So redacting these is more or less out of my bailiwick.

I could not care less about the historical revisions. If you think they've got to go then ... do it.

I've contacted a couple of admins to have the revdel (?) request reviewed. Cheers. 7&6=thirteen (☎) 20:09, 14 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

One of the admins replied: "Somebody else is going to have to do it. I can't evaluate copyvio or not when I can't see the source." Thought you should know. 7&6=thirteen (☎) 22:23, 14 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

That's weird. When the attribution is given right along with the content, I'd expect it to relieve the admin of the burden of ascertaining whether it's copied material. Largoplazo (talk) 22:40, 14 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

They don't answer to me. I did what I could. No comment. 7&6=thirteen (☎) 22:47, 14 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Fixed Thank you User:Oshwah 7&6=thirteen (☎) 15:09, 15 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

First sentence

The article began with:

A drift whale is one that has died at sea and floated into shore. This is opposed to a beached or stranded whale, which reaches land alive and may die there or regain safety in the ocean. Most cetaceans that die...

It was changed to:

A drift whale is a whale that has died at sea and floated into shore....

I reverted, and it was counter-reverted with the comment that "the sentence is ungrammatical because it essentially says "a drift whale is a drift whale that has died at sea" which is tautological; also the lead sentence needs to accurately define the subject". I disagree. Wikipedia does not need awkward constructions that no native speaker would ever normally say, jewels such as:

Texas City High School: Texas City High School (TCHS) is a public high school in Texas City, Texas in Greater Houston.

Persian calligraphy: Persian calligraphy (Persian:خوشنویسی فارسی) or Iranian calligraphy (Persian:خوشنویسی ایرانی) is the calligraphy of the Persian language.

Our Manual of Style about first sentences gives these bad and better examples:

The 2011 Mississippi River floods were a series of floods affecting the Mississippi River in April and May 2011, which were among the largest and most damaging recorded along the U.S. waterway in the past century. (2011 Mississippi River floods)

The Mississippi River floods in April and May 2011 were among the largest and most damaging recorded along the U.S. waterway in the past century. (2011 Mississippi River floods)

It also says:

Keep redundancy to a minimum in the first sentence. Use the first sentence of the article to provide relevant information that is not already given by the title of the article.

"Whale" is in the title of the article, and is correctly used as the third word of the first sentence; therefore it should not be repeated within that sentence. As for objecting to "one", it strikes me as the most natural formulation, but I am open to others. I am not thinking exclusively of wiki-language, but normal English prose. The encyclopedia has to be better formatted than everyday prose, but there is no reason it has to be uglier. Compare with:

A winter coat is one worn during the coldest season....
An Olympic-sized swimming pool is one big enough for international competitions...
Vegan burgers are ones made without meat, cheese, or eggs....

User:Gatoclass, can we find a better way to begin this article than "A drift whale is a whale"? Carbon Caryatid (talk) 13:20, 25 June 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The use of the word "one" in the the preceding examples are ones {:>&> that add nothing to the meaning of the sentence.

A winter coat is constructed for warmth and worn during the coldest season
An Olympic-sized swimming pool conforms to a regulated dimension, large enough for international competition.
Vegan burgers are formulated without meat, cheese or eggs.

Those are all more informative constructs. 7&6=thirteen (☎) 16:14, 25 June 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I changed the wording of the first sentence. ??? 7&6=thirteen (☎) 16:36, 25 June 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Not whaling

How the hell is "drift whaling" whaling? It isn't. Sitting on your ass and waiting for some dead whale to end up on some beach and then cutting some blubber and meat out doesn't make it whaling. That's scavenging. Whaling is the hunting of whales using various craft (e.g. boats, harpoons, lances, etc.). This trash article involves none of that. Don't degrade a term. OM2003 (talk) 23:23, 26 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]