User:RM395/Course/Edit wars/Exploding whale

by Katerwaul (talk) 23:54, 17 March 2013 (UTC)

Introduction

In November of 2004, a newscaster's alliterative quote incited an edit war on the Exploding Whale page, leading to a WP:RFC and back-and-forth bickering that proved less interesting than whales and explosions and certainly the two together.

Background Information

The Exploding Whale page documents of whales that have exploded, with and without the assistance of explosives. The most prominent of the exploding whales is the sperm whale that detonated in Oregon in 1970. In an attempt to remove the beached whale, the Oregon Highway Division exploded the whale with dynamite in the hopes the giant mammal would vaporize. Instead, chunks of blubber rained down on the beach, leading a newsman to quip that "land-lubber newsmen" had become "land-blubber newsmen, for the blast blasted blubber beyond all believable bounds."

The Edit War

In November 2004, editor "Ta bu shi da yu" (I'll refer to him or her as "Tabu") joyfully announced a new exploding whale incident in to add to the article. But the excitement of a new whale explosion was soon overshadowed by the deletion of the "blasted blubber" quote by Mikkalai, who removed the line for reasons of "bragging."

Tabu restored the quote to the page and demanded to know what was wrong with it in the first place. Mikkalai deleted the quote and replied, "the qote dosn't say abut the whale. It is a bragging of a guy what way lucky to tape the evnt." When Tabu restored the quote yet again, insisting the reporter was not bragging in the quote, Mikkalai (somewhat ironically, given his previous communication) suggested that Tabu open up a dictionary and direct himself to the word "brag." Tabu then took to pleading on Mikkalai's user's talk page. But just as scorched blubber bits can be difficult to rinse off one's car, Mikkalai was stubborn and refused to compromise on the deletion of the quote.

In an effort to avoid a full-out edit war where literally tens of characters would be in jeopardy, Tabu called out Mikkalai's behavior on the talk page. Mikkalai withdrew his accusation that the newsman's quote was bragging, though it appears that particular editor believed that calling one-self a "land-blubber" was bragging. But Mikkalai's most important point was that the newsman was not reporting on the blast because he had spoken the "blasted blubber" line before the whale had exploded in the broadcast. Therefore, the newsman was not technically reporting, and the quote served only to turn the article into a "paparazzi-style" report.

This opened a new page of idiocy in the saga of the Exploding Whale edit war: did Mikkalai truly believe that, since in the archived news footage the newscaster speaks the "blasted blubber" line before segueing into footage of the explosion, the quote could have possibly been said before the whale actually exploded? Was the newsman speaking as part of some whale explosion fantasy? But above all, and perhaps a better question: was the quote even relevant to the article at all?

Tabu posted a request on WP:RFC[1], explaining that his attempts to reason with Mikkalai had gone unheard. After Tabu posted the request, a new player entered into the war: the appropriately-named Dr. Zen. Dr. Zen prescribed everybody chill pills and stated that, while the quote may be lame and not worth including, it was factual, and not worth fighting its inclusion. Shortly after the arrival of Dr. Zen, who also reminded everyone that this dispute had arisen out of a joke, the edit war had simmered down into mild bickering over how exactly to phrase the quote.

Conclusion

The "blasted blubber" quote is still a part of the exploding whales page today. As for the war's champions, the account of the instigator Mikkalai was later banned when it was discovered to be a sock-puppet account. Tabu deleted his userpage in 2005 with the reason, "Gone. I no longer exist." After ending his existence, his user page has been resurrected three times. Whales curiously continue to explode.