Wikipedia:Patent nonsense

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Larry Sanger (talk | contribs) at 17:24, 23 March 2001. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Patent nonsense (to be carefully distinguished from BrilliantProse as well as PrivateNonsense), particularly on a wiki, falls into a just few general categories:

  • Literal nonsense, i.e., text that, usually intentionally, has no assignable meaning at all. This tends to be created after the consumption of too much adult beverage, for example, or under the influence of immaturity and/or stupidity. (The writings of James Joyce being the obvious exception.)
  • Stuff that, while apparently meaningful after a fashion, is so completely and irremediably confused that no intelligent person can be expected to try to make heads or tails of it. (The writings of James Joyce being the obvious exception.)

This should be sent to BadJokesAndOtherDeletedNonsense.

The following, while often regrettable, is not patent nonsense, and therefore according to a proposed rule on the WikiPediaProcess page, should not for that reason be deleted (but some suggestions for improvement are included):

  • Really badly-written stuff. (So correct it.)
  • Partisan screed. (Make it hedged or add qualifications in order to make it less biased.)
  • Religious excogitations. (Make it factual. Yes, there are ways of doing this; e.g., add phrases like "Followers of X hold that...")
  • Mere opinion, masquerading as fact. (Remove it to an appropriately-named page, or reword in order to make it fact-stating.)
  • Incompetent and/or immature stuff. (Well, it's not nonsense, but perhaps it does deserve to be greatly improved. So improve it.)