NOTE: User:Blackworm is: (1) a man, (2) technically inclined, (3) formally educated, (4) an English speaker (native or non-native), (5) white, (6) aged 15–49, (7) from a majority-Christian country, (8) from a developed nation, (9) from the Northern Hemisphere, and (10) likely employed as a white-collar worker or enrolled as a student rather than employed as a labourer. Wikipedia:Systemic bias states that the average Wikipedia editor is also all of these things, under the heading, The Origins of Bias, and in the context of its statement: "The Wikipedia project suffers systemic bias that naturally grows from its contributors' demographic groups, manifesting as imbalanced coverage of a subject, thereby discriminating against the less represented demographic groups." Please note the existence of WP:WikiProject Countering systemic bias, to which WP:BIAS apparently no longer redirects.
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ubx-5 | This user uses entirely too many userboxes. |
if & whether | This user knows how to use "if" and "whether" correctly. |
its & it's | This user understands the difference between its and it's. So should you. |
… | This user is addicted to ellipses and has been known to use them indiscriminately... |
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Blackworm's just this guy, you know?[1]
"The Origins of Bias"
"The systemic bias of Wikipedians manifests itself as a portrayal of the world through the filter of the experiences and views of the average Wikipedian."
"Change the demographic of Wikipedia. Encourage friends and acquaintances that you know have interests that are not well-represented on Wikipedia to edit. If you are at a university, contact a professor in minority, women's, or critical studies, explain the problem, and ask if they would be willing to encourage students to write for Wikipedia. Contact minority or immigrant groups in your area to see if they would be interested in encouraging their members to contribute. The worst they could say is, "No". But keep in mind that immigrant groups may well have a different point of view than the majority of people in the countries they emigrated from (they may, for example, be members of a minority group themselves or may have emigrated because of a disagreement with the government not shared by the majority of the population), which introduces its own systemic bias."
Do not recruit meatpuppets. It is considered inappropriate to advertise Wikipedia articles to your friends, family members, or communities of people who agree with you for the purpose of coming to Wikipedia and supporting your side of a debate. If you feel that a debate is ignoring your voice, remain civil, seek comments from other Wikipedians, or pursue dispute resolution. These are well-tested processes, designed to avoid the problem of exchanging bias in one direction for bias in another.
"To avoid disrupting the consensus building process on Wikipedia, editors should keep the number of notifications small, keep the message text neutral, and not preselect recipients according to their established opinions."
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WP:CANVAS (behavioural guideline)
Note: Blackworm supports encouraging women and minorities to help edit Wikipedia. He suggests talking to them everywhere they are found, not simply in places of academia or in women's studies. The suggestion to seek out people in women's studies seems wildly inappropriate to him, and cannot be justified by the suggestion that they may be found in greater numbers there -- women make up about half of all university students.[2]. If worried about de facto canvassing, Blackworm suggests that you consider anonymity (not revealing your Wikipedia user name) and consider suggesting articles that might be of interest to your friends but are of no interest to you and that you do not edit.
"Few people may know that a belief is wrong, but sometimes that is because most are unaware of the evidence against it."
"In general, if you find yourself having an ongoing dispute about whether a dispute exists, there's a good chance one does, and you should therefore leave the NPOV tag up until there is a consensus that it should be removed."
Introduction: Male circumcision is the surgical removal of all or part of the foreskin of the penis. It is one of the oldest and most common surgical procedures worldwide, undertaken for religious, cultural, social or medical reasons. Male circumcision has now been assessed as a potential means to limit the spread of HIV.
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Male Circumcision Information Package, United Nations (UN) Inter Agency Task Team (IATT), consisting of UNAIDS, UNFPA, UNICEF, WHO and the World Bank.
"Circumcision is also practis'd on Women, by cutting off the Fore-skin of the Clitoris; which bears a near resemblance, and analogy to the Praeputium of the Male Penis."
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Cyclopeaedia, 1728. Circumcision[3]
"Most probably, however, circumcision (which in many tribes is performed on both sexes) was connected with marriage, and was a preparation for connubium."
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Encyclopaedia Brittanica, 1911. Circumcision[4]
circumcise Pronunciation: \ˈsər-kəm-ˌsīz\. Etymology: Middle English, from Latin circumcisus, past participle of circumcidere, from circum- + caedere to cut. Date: 13th century. 1 : to cut off the foreskin of (a male) or the prepuce of (a female)
2 : to cut off all or part of the external genitalia and especially the clitoris and labia minora of (a female)
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Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 2010[5]
| The truthfulness of this article has been questioned. It is believed that some or all of its content may constitute a hoax. |
Another mainstream dictionary. 2010.
Another one. 2010.
Another. 2010.
"Female circumcision is a term applied to a variety of procedures performed on the female genitalia."
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Wikipedia, Dec. 2005 Circumcision[6]
"Circumcision. This article is about male circumcision. For the practice sometimes referred to as 'female circumcision', see Female genital cutting."
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Wikipedia, Dec. 2006 Circumcision[7][8]
"Circumcision. This article is about male circumcision. For female circumcision, see Female genital cutting."
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Wikipedia, Jan. 2010 Circumcision[9]
"In the Philippines, where circumcision is almost universal and typically occurs at age 10-14, a survey of boys found two-thirds of those surveyed choosing to be circumcised simply ‘to avoid being uncircumcised’ [...]."
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UNAIDS, Male Circumcision: context, criteria and culture
"Eventually, while undergoing electroshock torture, Winston declared that he saw five fingers when in fact he only saw four ("Four, five, six - in all honesty I don't know"). The Inner Party interrogator of thought-criminals, O'Brien, says of the mathematically false statement that control over physical reality is unimportant; so long as one controls their own perceptions to what the Party wills, then any corporeal act is possible, in accordance with the principles of doublethink ('Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once')."
There's not a man I meet but doth salute me
As if I were their well-acquainted friend.