- The following discussion is preserved as an archive of a comprehensive article nomination that was successful. Please do not modify it.
Unidentified assistant manager
- Nominated by: NaruHina Talk
20:32, November 22, 2011 (UTC) - Nomination comments: A sequel to Jizz-box.
(3 ECs/1 Users/4 Total)
Support
- "A" looks so much better than "This." Good job.--Cal Jedi
(Personal Comm Channel) 20:41, November 22, 2011 (UTC) 
—Axinal Convocation Chamber 03:09, December 5, 2011 (UTC)
This is wrong on so many levels. ~Savage 15:31, December 13, 2011 (UTC)- You can sing to my codpiece any day, babeh. Toprawa and Ralltiir 19:31, December 13, 2011 (UTC)
Object
Comments
- I just want to point out that I still vehmently disagree with standardizing "A" at the beginning of unidentified articles. I feel it has absolutely no more impact on our perspective than "This" and that it should be left to the author's discretion. I don't see any reason for regulation on such an arbitrary front, especially when not setting it in stone would allow just one more point of flexibility for when it comes down to rewording articles over and over again as several CA projects, and I'm sure most of my personal ones, became and will become in the future. However, when I looked back at my CAN of Trever Flume's mother while reviewing for the Battle of T'olan, I noticed that I promised to use that as a cut-off point for "This." I clearly didn't do that and I'm sorry and from now on I will until someone else thinks that some other grammatical adjective is "more IU" and we start changing all "A" articles to that. NaruHina Talk 20:32, November 22, 2011 (UTC)
- I agree with you. For some reason, the collective has agreed that "this" is a "present-tense" word. That's preposterous, as it's not a verb; it's a demonstrative adjective. But that's what seems to be common belief around here. ~Savage 03:31, November 23, 2011 (UTC)
- I believe the concern is that "This" reads like an OOU statement. Beginning an IU article with the phrase "This character" immediately raises the question, "What character?" Saying "A character" lets the reader know that they're unidentified and doesn't rely on the title, nor anything beyond the article's text, to give needed context. Menkooroo 14:52, November 25, 2011 (UTC)
- I'm glad we're being so thorough as to anticipate unconcious reader reactions that have never been an issue in the past. Though I disagree that they ask themselves anything like that within the first few words even as a reaction, there's absolutely nothing wrong with composing something that raises a question in the reader's mind so long as you intend to answer it promptly. In virtually all cases with "This", the answer comes in the first sentence—the same sentence. Furthermore, this demonstrates the variable I mentioned above: if we need more flexibility between articles sharing their information, allowing author choice on this front doubles the number of opening sentences we can write because "This" and "A" are handled differently grammatically like you said. NaruHina Talk 18:24, November 25, 2011 (UTC)
- I think Menk's point is that "This" immediately tells the reader that he/she is reading an article. I'm not sure where I read this, but I believe our standard on Wookieepedia is to avoid making reference to the fact that our articles are, in fact, articles, even though Naru is right that the reader could probably care less. I do prefer "A" over "This," but it wouldn't stop me from supporting an otherwise flawless article.—Axinal Convocation Chamber 03:09, December 5, 2011 (UTC)
- I'm glad we're being so thorough as to anticipate unconcious reader reactions that have never been an issue in the past. Though I disagree that they ask themselves anything like that within the first few words even as a reaction, there's absolutely nothing wrong with composing something that raises a question in the reader's mind so long as you intend to answer it promptly. In virtually all cases with "This", the answer comes in the first sentence—the same sentence. Furthermore, this demonstrates the variable I mentioned above: if we need more flexibility between articles sharing their information, allowing author choice on this front doubles the number of opening sentences we can write because "This" and "A" are handled differently grammatically like you said. NaruHina Talk
- I believe the concern is that "This" reads like an OOU statement. Beginning an IU article with the phrase "This character" immediately raises the question, "What character?" Saying "A character" lets the reader know that they're unidentified and doesn't rely on the title, nor anything beyond the article's text, to give needed context. Menkooroo 14:52, November 25, 2011 (UTC)
- I agree with you. For some reason, the collective has agreed that "this" is a "present-tense" word. That's preposterous, as it's not a verb; it's a demonstrative adjective. But that's what seems to be common belief around here. ~Savage