Hello, Ben MacDui, you have recently been adding "cryptid" categories to articles, like
here,
here, and
here. None of these articles discuss
cryptozoology, which is a pseudoscience strongly associated with Young Earth creationism, and in those cases [[Category:Cryptozoology]] is appropriate rather than using pseudoscience-internal terminology. It appears then that you are promoting the notion that these entities are "cryptids" rather than simply, say, beach blobs or water monsters. Please self-revert your edits per
WP:PROFRINGE. (Pinging
Dlthewave (
talk·contribs), who reverted one of these additions as a fringe category).
:bloodofox: (
talk) 18:05, 3 January 2020 (UTC)reply
Promotion and navigation are not the same thing. I have no interest in the former. If you don't like the category name please feel free to suggest an alternative - I can't think of a good reason not to have such categories designated by geography. If on the other hand what you are trying to do is supress navigational ease because you don't like the content then that is not covered by WP:PROFRINGE.
BenMacDui 10:01, 4 January 2020 (UTC)reply
I have in fact created an alternative, which is [[Category:Water monsters]]. Most others can just fit in [[Category:Monsters]] or, for beach blobs, there's no need for such categories.
:bloodofox: (
talk) 23:32, 4 January 2020 (UTC)reply
Your industry is commendable. However, you misunderstand my motivation. I am not especially interested in cryptids or water monsters in general, but I am interested in Scotland. I created the Scottish cryptids category to to make it easy to find such. Now as it happens, if you exclude my friend
Am Fear Liath Mòr the majority of them that are occassionally treated seriously would seem to be water-related and therefore can sit nicely in your new cat and are also in Category:Scottish legendary creatures. However, the Stronsay beast is clearly not legendary and perhaps this is why you don't think it is a water monster. There are one or two others similar to this - the
Beast of Buchan may or may not be legendary. The
Kellas cat has been promoted (lucky creature) from being a creature of myth to being one of science. I am just thinking aloud here but it seems to me that what has happened here is that:
I created Scottish cryptids to be a hold-all for creatures that exist in the public mind somewhere between myth and reality;
You have interpreted the word 'cryptid' to mean acceptance of a psuedoscientific belief;
The story of the Kellas cat suggests that there are grey areas, at least on occasion, and it is in both 'Fauna of Scotland' and 'Scottish legendary creatures';
The Stronsay beast has an unknown scientfic provenance and does not fit neatly into either 'Fauna of Scotland' or 'Scottish legendary creatures'.
Possible solutions:
Move 'Category: Scottish cryptids' to a new name that reflects your definition of 'cryptid'. Something like 'Category:Scottish unknown fauna' and populate it with the blob and one or two others. Clumsy and unclear in my view - although I wonder if in your research of these matters there are other examples of creatures (other than blobs) that clearly exist but which have an uncertain provenance.
Ignore the Stronsay beast for this purpose. This seems to meet your requirements but not mine.
Create 'Category: Scottish water monsters' and add the Stronsay beast to this along with other, more clearly legendary creatures. It's not perfect but it seems to meet what both of us are looking for.
BenMacDui 10:23, 5 January 2020 (UTC)reply
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Good work, and thanks for letting me know. As you have probably noticed I am not very active at present - at present I am very busy work-wise but it is quite possible that that may change soon...
BenMacDui 14:49, 21 March 2020 (UTC)reply
Yes I had, I have
User:Crouch, Swale/Islands which lists many missing ones (though many are probably not notable) anyway I hope to see you more active in the future! Crouch, Swale (
talk) 18:54, 21 March 2020 (UTC)reply
Hi, Ben. I'm just posting to let you know that
List of freshwater islands in Scotland – a list that you have been heavily involved with – has been chosen to appear on the Main Page as
Today's featured list for April 24. The TFL blurb can be seen
here. If you have any thoughts on the selection, please post them on my talk page or at
TFL talk. Regards,
Giants2008 (
Talk) 00:28, 30 March 2020 (UTC)reply
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I am very busy in the real world but I hope to take a proper look at this soon - hopefully in the coming week.
BenMacDui 13:59, 26 July 2020 (UTC).reply
Re the Island capitals that all looks fine - but I doubt there is any kind of official designation save for the three island authorities' capitals. Not realy controversial in most cases - most islands have one obviously largest settlement - but when it comes to Arran and Islay where there are two contenders I don't think there is any unequivocal answer. Having visited both I'd say Brodick and Bowmore have the 'feel' of the main town based on their services, regardless of population size but that is pretty subjective.
Re the Island settlements that's useful - and there are a few others within
Category:Villages on Scottish islands. Also I think you'd struggle to call some of the ones listed 'villages' (e.g. Rùm) hence 'Category:Populated places in the Isle of Skye'.
BenMacDui 13:07, 28 July 2020 (UTC)reply
Yes there doesn't seem to be any real authority though Tobermory being the capital of Mull does seem to be widely published. Regarding the authorities I presume you're referring to the Outer Hebrides and the Orkney/Shetland Islands? Note that in terms of English counties for example that the county town isn't always where the council is for example
Leicester is the capital of
Leicestershire but most of Leicester is no longer administrated by Leicestershire County Council, similarly although Truro is the capital of Cornwall, Falmouth is the largest settlement. So being the largest settlement or the administrative HQ doesn't necessarily make a place the capital. With Islay there does seem to be agreement that Bowmore is the capital even if Port Ellen is larger but since both Brodick and Lamlash are claimed for Arran I'd just keep it out of the articles since otherwise as you say it can be subjective.
Fair enough, although your last point is an example of why we should treat the OS with some caution.
BenMacDui 13:43, 1 August 2020 (UTC)reply
And on the flip side it doesn't treat
Ardlussa as being a settlement
[3] even though that does appear to be more than just a single property and shows up on the county level. In any case other sources do treat Kinuachdrachd as being a settlement. See also the Google Books search which also returns a bit about it. Crouch, Swale (
talk) 17:43, 1 August 2020 (UTC)reply
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Thanks for contacting me. The OS, which is the one I usually use for heights also has 28m so I'd definitely go with that. Areas for small islands are very tricky as, quite apart from the difficulty of getting an accurate estimate for a highly irregular shape, the result will also depend on the state of the tide when it is measured. I think either RL or the Gazetteer would be acceptable (or indeed both). The Gazetter is the better soruce in terms of academic credentials although we have no idea how they have done the claculations and as RL is kind enough to publish a table it is much easier to use that for the "Islands by area" page. Let me know which you prefer and I'll update that table.
BenMacDui 16:24, 14 November 2020 (UTC)reply
OK, I've changed the height to 28 but kept the area as 22, I don't think its plausible its a large as 27 given it appears to be around the same size as
Soyea Island but then
Tarner Island doesn't seem much larger either. As you say RL has it in a table so I'd keep RL for the area unless there's a better source so for now there's no need to change the table. Crouch, Swale (
talk) 17:34, 14 November 2020 (UTC)reply
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I'm not sure you should have deleted this under A3 since although it seems to only be 1 property now its name origin is covered by
Parliament Scot and its an OS settlement
[4]. Crouch, Swale (
talk) 17:58, 18 March 2021 (UTC)reply
@
Crouch, Swale: Well, it's not every day that someone takes me to task for something that occurred more than a dozen years ago! Some background - back then the inclusionist vs deletionist debate was probably more intense. My view, and that of others, was that pretending small collections of a dozen houses or fewer were 'villages' or meaningful settlements with notability was not especially encyclopedic and that 'Wikipedia is not a directory" applied. For good or for ill, that argument seems largely lost. Yes, some of these very small places do have meaningful history, but if so I'd prefer to see decent articles about parishes covering the topic with re-directs for the places themselves. Some of us however, prefer to create stubs that in some cases at least are unlikely ever to be genuine articles. C'est la vie and so far at least the Wikipedia servers show no sign of collapsing under the weight.
This is the farm on Colonsay? If you wish to re-create it with meaningful, notable content (including etymology) I am not going to object.
BenMacDui 17:04, 20 March 2021 (UTC)reply
Could you please just undelete it and then I can see if I can improve it sufficiently or if not merge it into Colonsay, thanks. Crouch, Swale (
talk) 17:07, 20 March 2021 (UTC)reply
There are errors in the template so I copied the content
here where I'll keep it for a week from today.
BenMacDui 10:36, 21 March 2021 (UTC)reply
Thanks, I've improved a little but still not sure if its notable. If its moved back a history merge will be needed. Crouch, Swale (
talk) 17:31, 21 March 2021 (UTC)reply
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