Edit War: Barack Obama

This is probably the first time since unlocking this page a few months ago that we've had problems with an editor's behavior.

Since late last night, some wiseguy has been trying to repeatedly depict the current President of the United States as a WASP (Yes, a WASP) and has been repeatedly adding this outright falsehood back onto the page no matter how many other tropers try and delete it.

edited 5th Dec '10 11:06:48 AM by SeanMurrayI

I believe in order to be a WASP you need to fulfill all three criteria. So no Obama isn't a WASP.

Also, potholing "Lincoln and Kennedy" to Boom, Headshot! is... arguably distasteful. o.o

What- ugh.

Edit- I see the context. It's a decent example- maybe it would be better to phrase it as something to the effect "Comparisons to Lincoln and Kennedy" qualify as this (Analogy Backfire) given the fate of those presidents.

edited 5th Dec '10 10:30:32 AM by Jordan

I suppose it's a bit like saying someone is two thirds a Sassy Black Woman or various other tropes. Unfortunate implications ahoy!

I'm not sure exactly what a WASP is, but I have a feeling that bit about how he's 'NOT A FUCKING WASP!' is going to achieve memetic mutation.

edited 5th Dec '10 10:34:54 AM by halfmillennium

WASP means "White Anglo-Saxon Protestant".

So no, he's not a WASP.

A WASP is a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant.

Also, the same editor is repeatedly making the same edits on the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant page, as well.

He's also adding Catholics to that page.

edited 5th Dec '10 11:52:47 AM by SeanMurrayI

Yeah. Someone needs an edit ban.

I moved the example to the discussion page with the suggestion that the discussion occur there rather than having an edit war. I have also notified the mods via the holler button.

Syon has been banned. If y'all wouldn't find checking to be sure all of his droppings are cleaned up, that would be great.

I think we're good.

Checking syon's edits and was H.P. Lovecraft a WASP? Don't know much about him.

edit to add: I did not catch syon zion connection until about 5 minutes ago.

edited 5th Dec '10 7:31:01 PM by blackcat

H.P. Lovecraft was a strong atheist.

Working on syons edits still. Would anyone really consider Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz an interracial couple? He was Cuban but I see that as intercultural rather than interracial. See Mixed Marriage

In terms of ancestry, Lovecraft was as waspy as they come. While I'm not sure about the point of having a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant page, if there is one, Lovecraft (unlike Obama) is probably a good example.

Also, something that I was thinking about- I kind of worried that syon might be a white supremacist, but given that he was willing to consider Obama a WASP, he probably isn't. Maybe he's more misguided than anything.

edited 5th Dec '10 7:58:29 PM by Jordan

"Would anyone really consider Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz an interracial couple?"

Yes. Nevermind the cultural/racial distinction; biologically, the concept of "race" is ridiculous. But for what it's worth, Lucy/Desi went a long way toward diminishing racism.

Isn't... shouldn't... no offense, but isn't the obvious solution here a page lock?

Why should we page lock when the sole person who was a problem has been site banned? That seems a bit overkill.

On Barack Obama?

If it's one person, who got banned, and all his edits have been reverted, why is the topic titled "Edit War"?

Because there was an edit war when the thread was started. Things have since been cleared up.

Definition of Edit War. It's a back-and-forth between one side and another, making and reverting the same edits over and over again. Sometimes it's due to controversy involved, other times (as here) it's because of a rather pathetic trolling attempt. Oftentimes the parties involved are very few, and one or both sides may be made up of one person each.

It's nothing new.

Goggle Fox: So, according to your definition, [bitter pedantry]. Why are you upset? It was a simple misunderstanding.

Eh, just explaining, and trying to be complete. And yeah, that's exactly what most edit wars are, bitter pedantry. A bit hard to resolve at times, so we get threads like these.

Edit wars can upset people for the same reason any argument can — but that's not really something we'd need to elaborate on here. I figured you'd read the OP, skimmed over the rest, and missed that it'd been resolved; like you said, simple stuff.