Jump to content

Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Fraternities and Sororities

Page contents not supported in other languages.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[edit]

Scope of the Project, Notability Rules (clarification), and Syntax for the Watchlist are linked here: Watchlist Talk Page. A discussion on the types of chapter status is here: F&S Project talk page, Archive #7.

Redlinked universities and colleges

[edit]

I have updated the master list of institutions that are red-linked in chapter lists for fraternities, sororities, honor societies, and other groups covered by our WP. This list is alphabetical by school name and includes all known associated groups in that single entry. There are also some sources to aid in creating articles for these redlinks, as identified by various editors. Items can be removed from the list, once an article is created. Rublamb (talk) 00:14, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Substandard chapter lists

[edit]

This is a working list of articles with substandard or missing chapter lists, which merit the attention of Project editors. For examples of lists, see List of Zeta Psi chapters, List of Beta Theta Pi chapters or the Alpha Delta Phi Society. If you are working on an article, please indicate below. Strike out when the article is fixed. Jax MN (talk) 21:34, 27 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Note that this list had been much longer; editors have reposted it after removing the completed projects. Jax MN (talk) 19:44, 6 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Rublamb (talk) 07:47, 6 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Substandard lists of notable members

[edit]

This is a working list of articles with substandard, bloated or missing lists of notable members, which merit the attention of Project editors. For examples of lists, see List of Alpha Omicron Pi members or List of Alpha Delta Phi members, though each of these could be expanded with a chapter location field. As another example, Phi Kappa Theta does a nice job with their notable members list, with the addition of some color title lines. We may opt to use this styling as a way of breaking up a wall of text.

Standard content for a member list is name, chapter and initiation year, notability, and references. Long list are usually divided into careers such as academia, art and architecture, business, entertainment, government (non-political) law, literature and journalism, military, politics, religion, science and medicine, technology, and sports.

If you are working on an article, please indicate below. Strike out when the article is fixed.

To avoid vanity listings, on these page's Talk pages, it would be helpful to add a list of rules for inclusion, as discussed here: Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Fraternities_and_Sororities/Archive_6#Notable_members_2. Jax MN (talk) 17:55, 24 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Many GLO member lists are simple lists of names. This is just a start.

  • List of Alpha Delta Phi members, needs a location field (to clarify, does each line need a location of that chapter? or skip this?)
  • List of Alpha Omicron Pi members, needs a location field (to clarify, does each line need a location of that chapter? or skip this?)
  • List of Acacia members, alphabetize lists by last name, alphabetize sections, needs references
  • Delta Zeta, inset list of names, ought to merit a list article with table.
  • List of Eta Kappa Nu members, simple list, few references, needs chapters and locations. As a point of clarification, for honor societies that award membership as honoraries (~mid-career) it seems we should simply note that they are an honorary member of the national society if they were not initiated into a specific chapter.
  • List of Sigma Alpha Epsilon members, needs table(s), needs references

Cleanup project

[edit]

The main list of infobox issues can be found at Category:Fraternity articles with infobox fraternity issues.

I have these here from other discussions so they are easier to find:

  1. "| coat of arms or "| crest" where "| image_size" is null or missing. (The size parameter is manually adjusted, depending on actual image size.) - Category:Pages using infobox fraternity with missing image size (68) --Done. Note that I downsized somewhat the crests and other infobox graphics, too many of which had crept so large that they were inadvertently expanding the infobox width. Of course, if someone wants to see a larger image of the crest, they can click on it, or go to the original source. Flag images are now typically 120px, and member badges appear about the size of an actual badge, or maybe up to 20% larger. Jax MN (talk) 22:35, 4 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
  2. "| founded" where the tag structure "{{Start date and age|yyyy|mm|dd}}" is NOT used - tracked at petscan DONE
  3. missing |affiliation= - Category:Pages using infobox fraternity with missing affiliation (2)
  4. missing |type= - Category:Pages using infobox fraternity with missing type (0)
  5. missing |scope= - Category:Pages using infobox fraternity with missing scope (0)
  6. missing |member badge= - Category:Pages using infobox fraternity with missing member badge (878)
  7. missing |chapters= - Category:Pages using infobox fraternity with missing chapters (61)
  8. missing |members= - Category:Pages using infobox fraternity with missing members (819)
  9. missing |website= - Category:Pages using infobox fraternity with missing website (148)
  10. Missing short descriptions. - tracked at petscan DONE
  11. Orphans - via WP Orphanage search and petscan DONE
  12. missing |status= - Category:Pages using infobox fraternity with missing status (1)
  13. Article name does not match infobox - DONE
  14. Missing infobox - DONE, if had WP F&S Rublamb (talk) 00:42, 29 June 2024 (UTC)}[reply]
  15. Missing country
  16. Unreferenced - working list pulled and shared in a new section below 29 June 2024
  17. Notability - working list pulled and shared in a new section below 29 June 2024
  18. Primary sources - tracked at petscan
  19. One source - working list pulled and shared in a new section below 29 June 2024
  20. Has bibliography but lacks inline citations - tracked at petscan
  21. Needs color boxes (Helpful link, has colors, flags, and addresses of Baltic, Scandinavian, German, and Polish fraternities)

Rublamb (talk) 02:01, 1 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Rollup of Parameters and values. *VERY USEFUL*

[edit]

A bot runs every month (current was done on June 1) that has a rollup of all of the values. (https://bambots.brucemyers.com/TemplateParam.php?wiki=enwiki&template=Infobox+fraternity) This was a *lot* of useful information, for example, for the parameter patron roman divinity , you can show links to all of the pages that use it *or* click on the Unique values columns, see how many unique values there are and for each of *them* see what pages they have. One annoying piece of data, I want to track down. 787 pages with the infobox, 787 with type, 787 with scope, and *786* with founded. Which means *one* article doesn't have it.

It is generated monthly, so we won't be able to see our recent changes for a bit, but it *will* be useful. Let me know what you find most useful!Naraht (talk) 03:23, 21 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Another issue: The Bot reports 787 pages with the Infobox fraternity. The List of Articles on the WP landing page only has only 744. If I understand how the List is generated, this means that 43 articles do not have WP Fraternities and Sororities listed on their Talkpage. I will see if I can find these using petscan. (Anything to avoid fixing the issues with Christian fraternities). Rublamb (talk) 15:01, 21 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Petscan found seven. Working on it. Rublamb (talk) 15:30, 21 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

July

[edit]

Looked at the talk page for the creator of the bambot (User:Bamyers99). It appears that the run with the June 1 data was created on June 9. It processes a generated file from Wikipedia that takes a while to generate. I dropped him a note thanking him and asking if the 9th was about normal. (With these types of generated files, I'd be *very* surprised if it ever came earlier than the 4th).Naraht (talk) 21:13, 2 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

July has been generated. Any additions of suggested/required will not show up until August. I'll take a look at July to see what changes we are looking at.Naraht (talk) 17:14, 3 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
And the work I did yesterday is not reflected. I guess will will need to wait another month to make sure that unwanted fields are truly not in use. But this is still progress. Rublamb (talk) 19:11, 3 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Correct. It is based on the State of the Wikipedia database as of July 1.Naraht (talk) 20:08, 4 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Founded

[edit]

As of June, there was *one* infobox without founded. *If* the infobox is set so that it is suggested or required, the rollup will show a link so we can see which one is missing. Similarly, I think it could be done on the others that are more than 700, chapters, name, birthplace, and country.Naraht (talk) 01:59, 3 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Or, I was thinking we could use Excel to compare the complete list with the list of items with countries, etc. It has been a while since I have used that feature, but it should yield a list of aritlces lacking whatever component. Rublamb (talk) 05:24, 3 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Found it! Aquinas Honor Society. Working on getting a date, I've found one that places it no later than 1951.Naraht (talk) 15:14, 15 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Great! Rublamb (talk) 15:20, 15 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

August is up

[edit]

Exactly 800 with the template. I'll move comments over to Template talk:Infobox FraternityNaraht (talk) 13:08, 4 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Portal Diskussion:Studentenverbindung

[edit]

I've reached out to the Discussion group over on dewiki at de:Portal_Diskussion:Studentenverbindung#Request_knowledge_from_english_language_wiki_on_Studentenverbindung and got some really great answers to things. And as I said before, I'm thinking of creating an Template:Infobox_Studentenverbindung equivalent to https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorlage:Infobox_Studentenverbindung if I can understand all the fields.Naraht (talk) 19:42, 30 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

After working on several Studentenverbindung articles recently, I found that what looked like an infobox for many was actually a code-generated table. All are now changed to "Infobox fraternity". I don't think we need a new infobox, but suggest adding "Zirkel" as a field option to Infobox fraternity. (Color for Couleur is a reasonable translation). Everything else works as is. We just need to create some instructions or at least answer these questions"
  1. Are we going to use color boxes or ribbon approximations?
  2. How do we determine the correct terms for emphasis; i.e. linking to the German word article for dueling, non-dueling, no couleurs, Catholic, and Christian? Or do we use the English translation?
  3. Do we use "Infobox fraternity" for individual fraternities and their umbrella groups? If so, what is the correct type for the umbrella group? The groups that used to have "Infobox organization" were called "trade association" under type. Umbrella group seems pretty informal.
Also, most articles use the foreign language version of the fraternity's name, rather than the English translation. Do we want a translation at the top in parenthesis or should we have a field/free field for the English translation? I struggle with which is correct here. Just consider, why are we using the German word Studentenverbindung instead of its translation? Is there a precedent in other parts of Wikipedia for continuing to use the foreign word instead of its translation? Rublamb (talk) 18:36, 23 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

New term. What to do about it? "Diaternity"

[edit]

I ran across the term "Diaternity" or "diaternities" on the UVA fraternity list, then tracked its recent use elsewhere to at least one small, co-educational, transgender-focused or multicultural fraternity. This appears to be a newly-coined term, which an LBGTQ+ group, Lambda Delta Xi may have created, and which they define as "to transcend boundaries."[1] The term is quite new.

While I am supportive of clarity and inclusion regarding language evolution I don't necessarily want to indulge every trendy word or phrase, or co-opted new usage. --It's so easy to over-reach in adopting new terms as they appear, and it seems to me that Wikipedia and the Wictionary are somewhat conservative in this, as are encyclopedias and dictionaries, generally. Jax MN (talk) 21:30, 6 August 2024 (UTC) Jax MN (talk) 21:30, 6 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Can't remember which group, but the term was coined maybe ten years ago. If that is what the group calls itself, I see no issue with including that in the article. Same difference as allowing some sororities to continue to self-identify as a women's fraternity. If diaternites is used by more than one group, it might be worth mentioning in the overview article(s). Rublamb (talk) 01:11, 7 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]
According to University of Virginia fraternities and sororities#Social diaternities, there are four national diaternities. Might be worth breaking these out in List of social fraternities and sororities, once we determine the four. Rublamb (talk) 18:52, 31 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]
We have three of the four in List of LGBT and LGBT-friendly fraternities and sororities:
  • Lambda Alpha Lambda (local, 2 chapters)
  • Lambda Delta Xi (local)
  • Sigma Omicron Rho (local)
  • Chi Alpha Iota (local), not currently in the list
Rublamb (talk) 18:57, 31 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

References

  1. ^ Note, this new, 2-chapter organization does not have a Wikipedia page. Lambda Delta Xi website

Article cleanup needed

[edit]

One of our main articles, Fraternities and sororities, has had a factual accuracy tag since March 2023. I just added a few sources, which is part of the issue. Since other have worked on this article in the past, you may have a better idea of what content is questionable. Rublamb (talk) 18:08, 9 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

There is also a discussion on the articles Talkpage about moving this to Collegiate fraternities and sororities. Rublamb (talk) 22:27, 12 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]
We just discovered History of North American fraternities and sororities which was off the radar because it lacked WikiProject tags. The two articles relate in many ways. I could see a merger of the two and/or splitting the history and cultural content into two articles. It would be a big project since these are both long articles. Rublamb (talk) 23:45, 4 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Awareness builder

[edit]

Editors with ties to some of the GLOs -- some of the bigger social fraternities and APO are examples -- brand their User pages with small banner tags noting membership. It might be a helpful long-term objective for the Project team to create these, one for each society in their colors, that they might be picked up by editors (typically, new editors) to drive Project participation. We could pin them to each Talk page, with instructions for use. Jax MN (talk) 17:50, 16 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

See Wikipedia:Userboxes/Collegiate sororities and fraternities Rublamb (talk) 02:58, 17 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I have updted the userbox template list on our Watch List so that it is easier to see which groups already have a userbox template. (I still need to check our ist against the one linked above). However, some existinng userbox templates are basicaly unreadable because of lack of contrasting colors.
If we are going to add these to all articles relating to the GLO, my suggestion is the horizontal template that nests under the WikiProjects, rather than the verticle box that floats to the right of the page. I don't recommend putting the userbox code in a TalkPage comment as that could be auto-archived. Does anyone need to see examples of the two formats before commenting? I am willing to work on inserting the templates if there is agreement on style. Does anyone volunteer for template cleanup duty? Rublamb (talk) 18:16, 23 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Naming articles for Latvian, Estonia, Russian and German groups

[edit]

We need to get a handle on naming conventions for student associations and corporations articles. We seem to have a mix of full foreign-language names, the Korp! nickname, the nickname without Korp!, and English translations. When working in this area yesterday, I found little consistency with Latvian and Estonian group names--the English Wikipedia article's names typically do not match the German Wikipedia name, sometimes using the formal name when that is not in use in German Wikipedia or the group's website. Also, the English translations may or may not be correct. This can eventually be fixed with redirects, but I am struggling to figure out the best common name format so we can be consistent across all articles. Refer to List of student corporations in Latvia and List of fraternities and sororities in Estonia for examples of the article name variations. (Note that I have linked to German Wikipedia if I could not find an article in the English version). Rublamb (talk) 22:13, 1 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

As these are (or ought to be) treated more comprehensively in their native language Wikis, I think we should include a link to the original language article and use a consistent naming structure, probably the 'full' name, not nickname. As long as these are treated consistently within the English language Wikipedia, I would be amenable to whatever of the options you list that you determine works best. Jax MN (talk) 22:52, 1 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
In most cases, using the full name is like naming an article "The Grand International Sisterhood of Moo Moo Moo, Incorporated", rather than "Moo Moo Moo" or "GIS Moo Moo Moo". (The later being what many of these corporations use on their websites, with "GIS" being common identifier for groups of that type). Since we already follow Wikipedia's naming guidelines and use the common name with US GLOs, I am pretty sure the article's title should be a shortened. It would be helpful to have a member of one of these groups or someone who speaks the language help us naviage what are and are not essential parts of the full name. For example, using "Korp!" may be akin to saying "Chi Psi Fratenity", with Korp translating as the unnecessary word "fraternity". Rublamb (talk) 23:25, 1 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Honor Society Museum

[edit]

www.honormuseum.org might be useful. With https://honorsocietymuseum.org/all/ being a list of those groups with a specific page about them. Right now we have *one* article that uses information from there: Rho Kappa.Naraht (talk) 00:14, 15 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

At one point, someone replace the some of the dead links to ACHS member pages with links to this website. However, I don't know it is connected to ACHS. Rublamb (talk) 02:00, 16 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I *really* don't think it is, diving into it leads to https://www.honorsociety.org/ , which I get really bad vibes from. "Honor society for all" which looking at the site means less than nothing. I was always looking into an honor society because it gave a good dental plan.Naraht (talk) 03:26, 16 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I had the same read on honorsociety.org. It seems like a for-profit website, possibly getting paid for click-throughs to honor society websites. It would be helpful if the "museum" were a reliable source because many of the socities formed in the late 20th and 21st centuries need more sources since they were never in Bairds. Is this a reliable source? Where do we think their content is coming from? Rublamb (talk) 16:16, 17 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Found this disclaimer: "HonorSociety.org Inc., Honor Society Foundation Inc., and its president Michael Moradian were sued in federal court by PTK on April 20, 2022 for False Designation of Origin, Trade Dress Infringement, and Unfair Competition. Honor Society and Michael Moradian countersued and are presently defendants/counter-plaintiffs in this litigation. Litigation is still ongoing and all claims made regarding this case are just allegations against the parties". Rublamb (talk) 23:13, 29 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Ceres:

[edit]

Looking at Ceres and the recent edit about SDSU's chapter going inactive, it indicates that the national Organization has disbanded. https://sdsucollegian.com/27721/news/ceres-womens-fraternity-disbands/ . the chapter at UW Platteville still appears to be going though. Should we count Ceres as having gone defunct? Naraht (talk) 23:31, 18 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

FarmHouse might be able to clarify this for us. They helped establish the sorority. Jax MN (talk) 18:20, 19 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Farmhouse basically told me to contact the group at Platteville. I've sent them email.Naraht (talk) 13:22, 29 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Updated list: Infobox fraternity with notability or no ref tags

[edit]
Delete: I added two sources but can't find significant coverage. Content has sources now, but mostly from its website. It is now included in both the African American and LGBTQ list articles, with a source. Rublamb (talk) 07:04, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Delete: can't find secondary sources Rublamb (talk) 20:13, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Merge with List of Greek umbrella organizations
- Found a few references. Need to add: from News.google. search "mu epsilon theta" catholic. Naraht (talk) 00:23, 4 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Delete: Only other sources are mentions of brides or graduates being members. The one secondary source is a local newspaper that quotes a member who says it is a local that has existed for 30 years and has 1000 alumni. The bulk of its content is from the group's website. It is now included in List of social sororities and women's fraternities Rublamb (talk) 23:50, 19 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Delete?: I added some sources and expanded/updated the chapter list. However, all of the sources I found are clearly from press releases. There is almost zero presence of this group on its host colleges' websites; I even found one that lists this as a non-recognized organization. A Reddit discussion notes that the group has used a copy of UNC's letterhead without any affiliation. Now that I have expanded the chapter list, I hate to say this--but it does not really meet notability. I suggest including it in the Honor society article but going for an AfD unless one good source shows up. Rublamb (talk) 01:01, 30 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Merge into College of William & Mary secret societies; I've searched the state library, the VA newspaper database, and the usual places and can't find off-campus sources. The logo and some info seem to be pulled from its Facebook page. Rublamb (talk) 22:13, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Infobox fraternity

[edit]

I was going to wait until the November rollup report to remove the discussed fields from Infobox fraternity but was getting frustrated by groups adding their mission statement back as fast as I removed it. So, I made the bold move yesterday and updated the template (and related instructions). To the best of my knowledge, all removed fields were not being used when I deleted them. However, @Naraht has since found one infobox that still had a mission statement. Hopefully, that is the only outlier. Rublamb (talk) 10:55, 29 October 2024 (UTC) bac[reply]

Note that I did not merge the gods and saints. That involves adding the new Divinity field and moving the existing data over to it. Rublamb (talk) 10:57, 29 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I'm still hesitant on merging the Patrons, but that's a separate discussion. As for the Mission, I saw Category:Pages using infobox fraternity with unknown parameters and worked my way backwards to seeing the change on the infobox. I'm not totally sure that a page will automatically show up if the page stays the same and the infobox changes, but we'll keep track.Naraht (talk) 13:27, 29 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I generally concur. Question: given that various editors are quick to restore their mission statements (et al), some are likely to use a free field to restore that content, if the mission parameter doesn't work. Do we have consensus to remove those free fields, too, when used for this information? I simply want to be consistent. Formerly, I thought short mission statements were fine, but with so many of them expanded to long, wordy paragraphs I have become convinced that it is better to omit these, as they are available on most societies' websites. Jax MN (talk) 17:39, 29 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I am hoping most are just filling in all fields and will not think of it when those fields are no longer an option. Yes, we should remove any mission or vision statements added via a free field since the WP's decided not to include these in the Infobox. (My next project is to find free fields being used for our newly added fields). I am not going to look for our original discussion, but we concluded most mission statements were too long for the infobox and that there was little value to their content. Through the cleanup project, I found only five or six that were short. Keeping the short mission statements and removing others was going to see arbitrary unless we were going to start counting words or characters and, of course, the long ones were returning.
I am so grateful for the rollup report because it made it easy to merge the fields that represented the same thing, i.e. charter place—birthplace, etc. The librarian in me finds it very satisfying to have a consistent syntax. This was long overdue and, now, all references to Kalieiscope are now gone! Rublamb (talk) 18:05, 29 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I agree that we had not resolved that one, which is why I left it for now. Rublamb (talk) 18:06, 29 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Concilio Interfraternitario Puertorriqueño de la Florida

[edit]

According to the State of Florida, Concilio Interfraternitario Puertorriqueño de la Florida filed papers of dissolution in 2013. Its website is dead but it has been posting on Facebook. It may have ceased operations as a formal nonprofit and is now an informal group. Should we remove the Concilio Interfraternitario Puertorriqueño de la Florida template? Rublamb (talk) 03:47, 4 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

If it was once notable, it is still notable. I think, keep it. Jax MN (talk) 07:44, 4 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Notability is qustionable. Its article had no sources until I add its archived website and the Florida nonprofit registry yesterday. Rublamb (talk) 08:12, 4 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Sounds like an AFD is in its future. Primefac (talk) 12:55, 4 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]