Editing Eurovision Wiki:Neutral point of view/Noticeboard (section)

== Multiple social media posts referring to past tense in palestinian cities ==

there appears to be a set of social media posts[https://www.tiktok.com/@haithooomi/video/7615348999935102221][https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1400731775422393&id=100064567517750] that talk about how wikipedia is referring to [[Rafah]], [[Beit Hanoun]], [[Al-Qaraya al-Badawiya]], and [[Al Qarya as Suwaydiya]].

not necessarily saying we take action, but at least one account {{ping|Datawikiperson}} has been trying to change rafah from past tense to present tense .

from page discussion, i dont see a substantive consensus to have changed to past tense either.? [[User:Bluethricecreamman]] <span style="font-size: 85%;">([[User talk:Bluethricecreamman|Talk]]·[[Special:Contributions/Bluethricecreamman|Contribs]])</span> 10:14, 10 March 2026 (UTC)
:{{re|Bluethricecreamman}} A tiktoker and a Facebook post of a state-run media outlet are not how consensus is decided on Wikipedia. On the Rafah page, this issue is already being discussed. Datawikiperson contributed a single sentence to the discussion and has been edit-warring on a 1RR topic. Is there some actual ''purpose'' to this noticeboard post? -- [[User:Veggies|<b style="color: blue; font-family: Times New Roman;">Veggies</b>]] (''[[User talk:Veggies|<b style="color: blue; font-family: Times New Roman;">talk</b>]]'') 13:13, 10 March 2026 (UTC)
::To notify folks this was happening. It appears there are several IP editors on the rafah page at least, which is concerning for an ecr article. And the article appears to be in the middle of an edit war that could be solved by bringing in experienced editors to discuss [[User:Bluethricecreamman]] <span style="font-size: 85%;">([[User talk:Bluethricecreamman|Talk]]·[[Special:Contributions/Bluethricecreamman|Contribs]])</span> 15:45, 10 March 2026 (UTC)
::Unfortunately, I think statements of the form "media/social media posts are not how consensus is decided on Wikipedia" are probably incomplete descriptions of the actual state of affairs, which is more complicated. What is definitely true is that there are off-wiki partisan groups and influencers and what they say can impact what happens here. They can direct the attention of people, including some editors, to specific pages and/or specific editors. This is, I suppose, functionally a search for people susceptible to influence, and it can be effective. The effects can be seen in pageviews, edit requests, edit warring etc. A single post can be enough to trigger a set of editors to self-assemble at a target article and those editors participate in the consensus forming process. So, there is off-wiki cause and on-wiki effect. There are numerous examples of this in the Arab-Israeli conflict topic area and elsewhere. It appears to be quite easy to find editors susceptible to influence and cause them to direct their attention to specific things. [[User:Sean.hoyland|Sean.hoyland]] ([[User talk:Sean.hoyland|talk]]) 17:45, 10 March 2026 (UTC)
:::i'd argue the best remedy given that the damage is done is advertising and being open about this on a public noticeboard on wikipedia when this is detected. <br>The TRT news article could be added to the appropriate talk page article under the [[Template:Media mention]] [[User:Bluethricecreamman]] <span style="font-size: 85%;">([[User talk:Bluethricecreamman|Talk]]·[[Special:Contributions/Bluethricecreamman|Contribs]])</span> 01:10, 11 March 2026 (UTC)
::::It is interesting to watch the power laws of social media influence crash into a wall, the sort of flat all-editors-are-created-equal structures in Wikipedia. It would be great if people were just open about it and said, "I saw xyz off-wiki, so I'm here". But I suspect the best remedy might be to out-compete the external factors by having much more effective ways to increase participation in consensus forming discussions like RfCs that are better at sampling the editor population...which is pretty large and diverse. I have no idea how to do that though. [[User:Sean.hoyland|Sean.hoyland]] ([[User talk:Sean.hoyland|talk]]) 08:11, 11 March 2026 (UTC)
:[https://www.thedailystar.net/analysis-2/news/the-danger-past-tense-4125311 The danger of past tense] - ''[[The Daily Star (Bangladesh)|The Daily Star]]'' [[User:Gråbergs Gråa Sång|Gråbergs Gråa Sång]] ([[User talk:Gråbergs Gråa Sång|talk]]) 11:05, 11 March 2026 (UTC)