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    Presidential election articles lead sentences

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    I still think the lead sentences of the articles about US presidential elections are clunky for no good reason.

    The 1968 United States presidential election was the 46th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 5, 1968.

    Half the information in this single sentence is provided twice. This is due to the insistence on starting the article with the article title in bold, despite that practice being against the Manual of Style (WP:AVOIDBOLD).

    Then there is the "46th quadrennial". The ordinal number does not appear anywhere in the article body; nor ever in the lists of elections or in the texts of other articles. Thus I have to wonder: to whom does it matter? Same for the word quadrennial: not only is it not the most efficient way to convey that information, the information itself seems misplaced. Finally, I would do away with the day of the week, but that is the least of my concerns. The end result would be something like:

    A presidential election was held in the United States on November 5, 1968.

    or, alternatively:

    In the United States presidential election held on November 5, 1968, the Republican nominee Richard Nixon defeated the Democratic nominee Hubert Humphrey and the American Independent Party nominee George Wallace.

    The shorter version contains much the same information as the current sentences minus the fluff, whereas the longer version summarizes the entire topic. I know that the clunky version has been in place for well over a decade but I believe we can do much better. Other suggestions would be much appreciated. Surtsicna (talk) 01:00, 4 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

    In the second version, does it make sense for United States presidential election to be in bold?
    In any case, I prefer the second version. Once you have removed the "fluff", the sentence does not stand very well on its own; combining it with the second sentence looks natural. Bruce leverett (talk) 02:00, 4 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    I concur with Bruce, and bolding is not reasonable or necessary here. SNUGGUMS (talk / edits) 03:29, 4 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    I would not have boldface in the second sentence either because a prompt link to an essential article (United States presidential election) is far more useful to readers than boldface ever is. This is even addressed by MOS:BOLDLINKAVOID and MOS:TITLEABSENTBOLD. Surtsicna (talk) 07:26, 4 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    I also prefer the longer option and agree with the characterization of the status quo as clunky. GreatCaesarsGhost 19:50, 4 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    I oppose the unbolding of those pages. GoodDay (talk) 17:15, 24 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    MOS:BOLDLEAD says that if the title is widely accepted for the subject and can be naturally included in the sentence, which I think both are true. I don't think BOLDAVOID is a reason to unbold them; the prior sentences read perfectly fine to me. SWinxy (talk) 20:44, 25 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    MOS:BOLDLEAD links also to Wikipedia:Superfluous bolding explained, which tells us "how to avoid awkward, superfluous cramming of an article's title in bold into its first sentence". That is exactly what those sentences were. I would be much surprised if defining the 1968 presidential election as a presidential election that took place in 1968 were helpful to anyone. Surtsicna (talk) 21:32, 25 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

    Maybe this whole 'remove the bold title' from election pages, should be brought up at Wikipedia:WikiProject Elections and Referendums. For a bigger audiences, perhaps Village Pump would be better. It would (at least) avoid an inconsistency across all such pages, be it with the USA & other countries. GoodDay (talk) 13:26, 26 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

    • I agree with Surtsicna's point about intros being clunky and that using the article title (and bolding it) in the opening sentence is unnecessary duplication (IMO election article titles don't really work properly with MOS:BOLDLEAD, probably because they are a formulaic construction rather than an actual name). Of the two options presented above, I would prefer the first, although I don't see what is wrong with the current intro ("Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 5, 1968"). Number 57 14:44, 26 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    I'm considering bringing this to Village Pump. Perhaps Surtsicna's idea, can be adopted for all election pages. GoodDay (talk) 15:36, 26 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    I don't think this is something significant enough to need a village pump discussion. WT:E&R would be a more approrpriat venue if another were needed, but I'm not really convinced it is? Number 57 16:16, 26 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    I am afraid that you do not understand. That is exactly what I would expect GoodDay to do. He is not happy with the consensus reached here so he will start a discussion elsewhere in hopes of undermining this one. Peak GoodDay, in fact, is starting an RfC without consulting anyone, framing the question in a way that (deliberately?) misses the core of the problem, and so ensuring the return to status quo (ante). Surtsicna (talk) 21:00, 26 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    I wasn't planning a RFC or trying to overturn anything. If you want, remove the bolded titles from all election pages. Seeing as nobody has reverted the changes on the 1788 to 2028 US prez election pages' intros? One would have to consider it as a sign of consensus for your changes. I just thought there could be a way to 'speed up' the process. GoodDay (talk) 21:58, 26 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

    Not sure if Wikipedia:WikiProject U.S. Congress and Wikipedia:WikiProject United States governors need to be notified. But, it would be best to remove the bold titling from all the US Senate, US House, stat/territory gubernatorial & lieutenant gubernatorial elections, too. Re-establishing consistency (at least) within the US election pages, is something to consider. GoodDay (talk) 22:16, 26 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

    Donald Trump task force

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    Evidently, the scope of Trump-related articles will drastically grow in the coming years. A previous attempt to establish a WikiProject for Trump himself failed, though the work of maintaining these articles remains. Thus, I am proposing a Trump task force within WikiProject United States Presidents to expand Second presidency of Donald Trump, update any articles that reference the current president by name e.g. List of current heads of state and government, and generally prevent vandalism or non-constructive edits through Inauguration Day and potentially beyond that. elijahpepe@wikipedia (he/him) 22:54, 8 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

    CC: Soibangla SecretName101 Valjean, as frequent AMPOL editors. elijahpepe@wikipedia (he/him) 06:48, 9 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

    I was actually just about to propose restoring WikiProject Donald Trump at Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals, until I saw "Please do not create any new proposals until the new process is in place." My plan was to ping WP Donald Trump members to see if they would sign on as an interested participant, with the hope that enough signatures could override the vote to redirect. I don't see how having a Trump task force is better than having a Trump WikiProject. @ElijahPepe: Thoughts on redirecting Wikipedia:WikiProject United States Presidents/Donald Trump task force to Wikipedia:WikiProject Donald Trump? ---Another Believer (Talk) 16:23, 13 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

    Actually, a move/update is already in progress per Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Donald_Trump#Task_force ---Another Believer (Talk) 16:42, 13 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    I'm against establishing a WikiProject because the number of WikiProjects is quite large already and the scope of the Trump articles does not suggest we need one yet, but if consensus leans towards one, I suppose that's fine. elijahpepe@wikipedia (he/him) 16:47, 13 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    @ElijahPepe I couldn't care less if we call the project a WikiProject or a task force. Makes no difference, but here we go!
    ---Another Believer (Talk) 20:28, 13 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

    There is a requested move discussion at Talk:Economic policy of the Joe Biden administration#Requested move 10 November 2024 that may be of interest to members of this WikiProject. 𝚈𝚘𝚟𝚝 (𝚝𝚊𝚕𝚔𝚟𝚝) 00:04, 16 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

    Proposed redirect on Kai Trump

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    There is a redirect discussion at Talk:Kai Trump#Proposed redirect that may be of interest to members of this WikiProject. - Ratnahastin (talk) 04:38, 15 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

    Requested move 7 January 2025

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    The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

    The result of the move request was: moved to Wikipedia:WikiProject Presidents of the United States. Arbitrarily0 (talk) 21:47, 14 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]


    Wikipedia:WikiProject United States PresidentsWikipedia:WikiProject United States presidents – Per MOS:JOBTITLES, president is considered a common noun when it is plural.

    This move would align the project name with List of presidents of the United States and all other related lists and articles on the topic. Woko Sapien (talk) 21:45, 7 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

    Alternative proposal: rename the project to Wikipedia:WikiProject Presidents of the United States per BarrelProof's suggestion. This better aligns the project name with the header image on the project page and avoids any potential MOS:JOBTITLES conflict by treating "WikiProject" as a name space designation. --Woko Sapien (talk) 15:33, 8 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    • Oppose, the link gives the name as "Wikiproject Presidents of the United States". Plus per names of WikiProjects do not have to follow MOS (i.e. the correct uppercasing of Wikiproject Civil Rights Movement). Randy Kryn (talk) 00:28, 8 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    • How about Wikiproject Presidents of the United States?: The fact that the title shown on the project page is different from the current name of the page seems like a reason to support changing the title rather than a reason to oppose it. Wikipedia seems to treat the "Wikiproject" prefix as a pseudo name space, nearly always or always capitalizing the word that follows "Wikiproject" in the title. —⁠ ⁠BarrelProof (talk) 02:32, 8 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    I'd drink to that. Randy Kryn (talk) 03:37, 8 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    I like this idea too. I've added it underneath my original proposal as an alternative option. I'm agreeable to either one. Woko Sapien (talk) 15:38, 8 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

    Reagan 1985 & Obama 2013

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    Would appreciate more input at this discussion, concerning Reagan's 1985 & Obama's 2013 inaugurations. GoodDay (talk) 23:11, 19 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]