Talk:Panyarring

A fact from Panyarring appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 16 November 2012 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that panyarring is the practice of involuntarily seizing people and selling them into slavery to recoup losses or gain repayment of debts?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2012/November. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Panyarring.

Wikipedia

British Empire

	British Empire portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject British Empire, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of British Empire on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.British EmpireWikipedia:WikiProject British EmpireTemplate:WikiProject British EmpireBritish Empire articles
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.

Africa: Ghana

	Africa portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Africa, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Africa on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.AfricaWikipedia:WikiProject AfricaTemplate:WikiProject AfricaAfrica articles
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.
	This article is supported by WikiProject Ghana.

"Involuntary Seizure"

The phrase "involuntary seizure" is really awkward. The phrase is intended to say that it is against the will of the person acted on, but it's more common to speak of the actor as doing so involuntarily. When you say an action is involuntary, you mean that the actor did not intend it. The current phrase is awkward because a seizure is involuntary; if it weren't, you'd say the person went willingly. For similar reasons, "involuntary murder" (where it is meant that the murder is against the wishes of the murdered) would be nonsensical

I'd suggest come other phrasing. If the author means that the seizure is against the wishes of the seized person, I'd say that "involuntary" is otiose. If the intention is to emphasize that it is an outcome of a contract, I'd say "contractual seizure." Or something else: the original author can clarify his meaning. Hughdbrown (talk) 15:41, 16 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Forcible? Arbitrary? The idea is to distinguish panyarring from pawnship which was the "contractual seizure" of individuals (done without force by the debt collector). There needs to be some modifier to distinguish the seizure of individuals in pawnship (which was based on mutual consent) from panyarring (which was based on decision only by the creditor). Lovejoy uses Arbitrary as the key modifier. Other suggestions welcomed. AbstractIllusions (talk) 16:03, 16 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Went with arbitrary as a placeholder. It makes sense, I think, but another sentence needs to be added I think for clarity. AbstractIllusions (talk) 16:46, 16 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]