Jump to content

Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Fraternities and Sororities/Archive 10

Page contents not supported in other languages.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Archive 5←Archive 8Archive 9Archive 10Archive 11Archive 12→Archive 15

Fixing Honor Societies & achsnatl.org

We have 71 pages that use achsnatl.org https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Search&limit=500&offset=0&ns0=1&search=insource%3Aachsnatl.org , Most of those links to individual honor societies in external links. We have links to both the organization and the chapter list at achsnatl.org in the external links. I believe the chapter links are gone and the organization pages are at urls with minimal consistency. For Example Mu Kappa Tau:

I think we can trim *some* of that new , but that will take experimentation. I don't remember of any of the chapter lists were useful enough to try to pull from archive.org.Naraht (talk) 03:13, 4 September 2023 (UTC)

Watchlist management

If you add a new article or split a list of notables or chapters off of an existing article, be sure to go to the Watchlist and add a bulleted new item for that page. By doing so it will then show up on the Recent Changes list, so other editors are alerted of changes. I hadn't realized this until after I'd added several new articles, but my own edits weren't being alerted to the Project team. Jax MN (talk) 20:04, 3 July 2023 (UTC)

Table syntax and readability

For our chapter lists, the installation date and range field can easily get cluttered, especially with platform-adjustable field sizes. This results in readability issues. I've previously supported use of the non-breaking, non-spaced hyphen between "opening" and "closing" dates, like this: March 15, 1921–June 1, 2020, but this style was overruled, likely because of a generic usage rule that preferred spaces before and after the hyphen.

So, what about adding a <br /> after each completed set of active chapter dates, so that any future chapter restoration dates would show up on the next line? And then, where chapters are active, they would be marked with a trailing hyphen, rather than just leaving them bare, or inserting something like " March 15, 1921 - present".

Here is an example:

Chapter Chartered/Range Institution City/County State/Province Status References
Beta Lambda October 29, 1930 – July 1, 1970;
February 28, 1981 – May 15, 2009;
November 16, 2013 – 		University of Arizona Tucson Arizona Active [a]

For discussion... Jax MN (talk) 14:40, 4 July 2023 (UTC) Jax MN

I like it. And as an added benefit, those hard returns with the dates will make the date column narrower, often solving the issue of unsightly returns within chapter and university names. With visual editing, you can split the dates by hitting the enter button on your keyboard, meaning that adding < br / > is an unneeded step. (P.S. You weren't overruled so much as I started following MOS for dates) Rublamb (talk) 17:09, 5 July 2023 (UTC)
  1. ^ Chapter was formed by absorbing Alpha Gamma Omicron, established in 1928. Reestablished as a colony in 1980 and 2013.

Slashes in table headers

We just had an editor update the headers for a chapter table in List of Delta Sigma Theta alumnae chapters, citing MOS:SLASH and MOS:HEAD. This editor is implying that we should not use "Chartered/Range", "City/County", or "State/Province" in our headers. For example, they subsitituted "State/Territory/County" with "State, territory, or county". Similarly, we should be using "Chartered date and range" and "City or county". I tend to favor following MOS when possible and have previously suggesting updates to our WP style to comply. If we decide to make this change, any idea how many article it might impact? Was the slash a recent addition or has the WP been using it for years? Rublamb (talk) 17:28, 23 June 2023 (UTC)

Did you get a read on why the MOS suggests no slashes? Was it for a technical reason? If not, I favor use of slashes because they allow the header for that field to be narrower. The meaning is still clear, without the extra words and spaces. We can veer from MOS when we have good reasons. Another example where I don't exactly follow MOS is where a reference citation immediately follows an italicized word. MOS says there is no space after words, but where there is an italic, I add a space prior to the citation. Thus the characters don't overlap each other at top, meeting the more basic intent of readability. Jax MN (talk) 22:38, 5 July 2023 (UTC)
Here the link to MOS:SLASH. Rublamb (talk) 01:07, 6 July 2023 (UTC)

Clearing the queries & notes.

I'm going through everything on the WP list and getting rid of the queries (both q= and dq= for all of the references to google books. So basically

gets changed to

anything that is another argument after the query should stay as well. (dq= gets the same treatment.) Let me know if I mess anything up.

among the changes caused by the run, AWB is updating two commonly used templates to what they redirect to. "start date and years ago" to "start date and age" and "url" to "URL". Just letting people know about these in one place.Naraht (talk) 19:17, 3 August 2023 (UTC)

@Naraht: Can you explain a bit more about why you are take on this project? It was my understanding that the querie part of the Google Books, etc. web address is that takes you to the exaact page cited, rather than the book's landing page. I actually find this feature to be of great convinience, as I am sure other users do. Rublamb (talk) 21:39, 4 August 2023 (UTC)
I've taken a look at some things with this over the last couple of hours. If there is no page number, then I'll undo the change, but there are a lot that have a page argument as well as a search term.Naraht (talk) 21:45, 4 August 2023 (UTC)
That seems fair. I honestly had never considered this one way or the other. Rublamb (talk) 00:53, 6 August 2023 (UTC)

Template question

Should collegiate secret societies be a new section in the Fraternities and Sororities template or should there be a new template? @Naraht, I know you are the template expert. Thoughts? Rublamb (talk) 17:56, 10 July 2023 (UTC)

The question is how many of them are there with pages right now. (Plus the "here are all of the secret societies for Ivy League schools X pages")Naraht (talk) 13:40, 11 July 2023 (UTC)
Good question. Based on my recent work updating our watchlist and adding WP to articles, there are at least 50 groups with articles, including both category:collegiate secret society and catetory:secret societies at Yale. If you check our List of Articles, most of the unassessed ones are collegiate secret societies but, of course, there are others that already have WP class assigned. Given that these names won't nicely shrink to three Greek letters maybe this should be a new template? Speaking of Yale, I have no idea why there is not a general article about secret societies at Yale. Maybe it was challenged and deleated at some point? Rublamb (talk) 15:25, 11 July 2023 (UTC)

Notes

On at least two pages that I've been going through with AutoWikiBrowser, it is moving Notes from where it is on the page (normally after the chapter list) to just before the references. This is standard. Is there anyway that we can tweek this so it stays where it was (or even should we?)Naraht (talk) 21:45, 3 August 2023 (UTC)

Good question. I checked MOS and found MOS:ORDER indicates that efn go at the end of the article. Can anyone find another MOS entry that allows efn to go with a specific section OR is this just something we have been doing because it makes sense for the reader? If the latter is true, I would not worry about the changes AutoWikiBrowser is making. It is easier if we follow MOS in most cases. Rublamb (talk) 21:44, 4 August 2023 (UTC)
I prefer placing EFNs immediately following the table sections where they are cited, as a matter of clarity. My understanding is that MOS is somewhat flexible when it comes to making things clearer. Many articles would be fine as Naraht and others have adjusted them, where Notes are immediately preceding References. But on more complex tables I've used multiple Notes subsections, again, for clarity. I could be convinced either way. Jax MN (talk) 22:23, 4 August 2023 (UTC)
@Naraht Question: Does the efn section have to have a title header/subheader "Notes" for the AutoWikiBrowser catch it? @Jax MN and I have recently been placing the efn under a chapter table without a header. Just wondering if this was a work around. Rublamb (talk) 00:52, 6 August 2023 (UTC)
If there is a specific {{notelist}} for a specific table, I wouldn't add a ==Notes== header underneath, if anything just a ;Notes to make it bold. Primefac (talk) 07:34, 8 August 2023 (UTC)
PrimefacAny idea if changing the header to a bold will stop autowikibrowser from moving it?Naraht (talk) 14:39, 9 August 2023 (UTC)

Started the subcats

I've started splitting Category:Lists of chapters of United States student societies by society , I've started with the NIC, but this sort of makes inaccurate the ones that are both members of the NIC and NPHC, which I'll have to create later. I intend to create subcats for NIC, former NIC (active), former NIC (defunct), NPC, NPHC, PFA, former members of PFA (and predecessors) and the ACHS. I'll see what's left after that, and either leave them there, or ask her for ideas on subgrouping them.Naraht (talk) 04:00, 8 August 2023 (UTC)

Adding a cat for former members of NALFO (and then sorting that out), and then a cat for list of chapters of former members of NALFO. Note, these subcats are not *completely* non-overlapping. List of Alpha Phi Alpha chapters is in both lists of chapters of NIC and lists of chapters of NPHC. I don't that disqualifies the concept. After this, I'll do the same things for the lists of members. Note, I have no interest in creating a category in either lists of chapters or lists of members if all entries are redirects to sections of a main GLO article. I also need to go back and add descriptions for the categories.Naraht (talk) 14:37, 9 August 2023 (UTC)
Done with splitting for now. see Category:Lists of chapters of United States student societies by society and subcats. NALFO, PFA and NIC have "prior member" subcat(s). Still wondering whether subcats should have been to the umbrellas or to the type, so right now there are probably about 4 or 5 uncategorized honor societies since they aren't ACHS and a few other types. While we have redirects for 3 of the APIDA groups, until we have actual pages, I don't think making a cat is worth while. I'll take a bit of a pause and then jump into the members cat which I believe is about half the size in terms of actual pages.Naraht (talk) 19:29, 9 August 2023 (UTC)
Done with the members. Phi Mu Alpha's List of Sinfonians is still there because it is the only one that would go into the former PFA grouping and out of the choices of Leaving it there, putting it in the PFA grouping with the actives or creating a subcat for it under the PFA one for members, the first seems best.Naraht (talk) 21:40, 9 August 2023 (UTC)
Nice work. You've spent far more time with Categories than I have. Jax MN (talk) 05:20, 10 August 2023 (UTC)
You forgot to add "or would ever want to". :) I use hotcat, which allows for pretty easy change for a page to its subcat (or sub-sub cat).Naraht (talk) 13:17, 10 August 2023 (UTC)

Square and Compass

The Square and Compass group mentioned in Sigma Mu Sigma apparently had as many as 50 chapters at one point. I think it is worthwhile trying to get enough to split out an article. I'm thinking (fraternity) for the dab term.Naraht (talk) 22:34, 13 August 2023 (UTC)

Added all of them in the 1930 Baird's. However I think the 1935 list is the same and I don't see in 1940. Given the fact that the group was hit hard by the Depression, I'm not quite sure where to find a complete list. I know there are other sources, and as soon as I have a chance, I'll try to clean up for a seperate list. I have an image of the pin from Baird's, colors, flower, etc.Naraht (talk) 18:48, 15 August 2023 (UTC)

Greek sections in university articles

It has come to my attention that a lone editor has gradually been going through college and university articles and replacing the Greek organization content with a sentence along these lines: XYZ University has several fraternities and sororities. The editor usually (but not always) posts on the article's talk page about five days making the change with the same generic statement: "This section is unusual for an article about big universities. The contents of the Greek part are unreferenced and since it is just a rote list of various fraternities and sororities without any further detail, I question whether there is any useful information being shared here. I propose deletion." The replication of their talk page message and the singularity of edits to the articles suggests a bias against GLOs and a threat to content that others have created in good faith. At least three of us have engaged in discussions with this editor in the past year, but these changes usually don't come to our attention because the articles in question are beyond the WP scope. It would be a huge project, but I wonder if we should include the Greek sections (ie XYZ University#Greek Life) in our watch page? Rublamb (talk) 03:19, 15 August 2023 (UTC)

I think you are assuming bad faith here. I do not think this is "anti-GLO", but rather something along the lines of "I saw this issue in one article. It is in many articles. I think I am going to fix this". If the contents of "the Greek part" are unreferenced and/or just a rote list, I would probably advocate for removing them as well (though I have better things to do than do it for every university). Primefac (talk) 13:31, 15 August 2023 (UTC)
@Primefac, I agree that you never know someone's motives. Assuming these cuts were made as stated over sources (the only source was the university's website), I added three secondary sources, including The New York Times. This was part of their response "Fact is, the new references are not much better. They are simply lists upon lists (Baird's Manual), and that means the WP:UNDUE critique still holds. No one doubts that these chapters exist/ed. Many doubt that they have any significance for an encyclopedia. Comparably insignificant listings would be: prayer groups, study groups..." So, even if this is a series of good faith edits based on a different interpretation of Wikikpedia's guidelines, the outcome is going to be the same.
Let's not focus on this one editor but on whether or not it makes sense for our WP to officially adopt this content. This editor is correct that most GLO sections in university articles lack secondary sources. Because we have expertise in GLO sources and the significance of organizations to specific campuses, I think we could help determine what is appropriate and what is excessive (the latter does exist). We could help develop guidelines for this content or, at least, provide numerous examples of best practices. But, as I said before, setting up our system to monitor this would be a huge project. However, it also might be a good way to engage/involve more editors in our WP. Rublamb (talk) 14:56, 15 August 2023 (UTC)
Personally speaking, I don't really see the need or point in listing every GLO, the same as how I don't think we should be listing every sport, club, or degree program (at any academic level). GLOs exist, they are ubiquitous at university level education, and unless there is something special or unique about a certain GLO (founding chapter, major incident, etc) I don't really see the need to add the information. If folks want to add that sort of tracking to our Article Alerts system, by all means go for it (doesn't harm me one bit). Primefac (talk) 17:21, 15 August 2023 (UTC)
I appreciate your balanced approach. Certainly, there is something in between listing every GLO and listing none. For example, it is worth mentioning if a GLO started at that institution or has a National Register chapter house. There are also cases of current events that might be worth including. Since U.S. News & World Report annually provides data on GLO members for each campus, it is a great source as to the relevance of Greek life to campus, as well as being another fact to incorporate into articles. In one of these content removal edits I came across, another editor pointed at that 75% of the student body at that college belonged to a GLO according to U.S News. This data makes GLOs am important component of that university's article. Not so much on a campus that is 10% or 15% Greek. Context matters.
However, showing restraint and limiting what is included can make outliers such as the newer multicultural or GLBTQ Greek orgs feel marginalized or, at a minimum, underrepresented. Earlier today, I saw a talk page comment where someone asked why Black fraternities weren't included in an article's GLO list. I think we could solve this problem by crafting a general statement mentioning the types of Greek organizations found on the campus. A version of this could be used for most articles, along with appropriate added content. Rublamb (talk) 20:20, 15 August 2023 (UTC)

Ordering with years and without

I *abhor* the way in which Baird's lists chapters. There are two ways that it feels inappropriate for what we do. One of them we seem to always change, the other I'd like to see changed as well. Assuming a "normal" chapter description, where the first chapter is alpha, the first 24 go to omega and then on to Alpha Alpha, Alpha Beta and so on.

1) If the first chapters of a GLO all were established in the same year, the listing goes

  • 1919 Alpha
  • 1919 Beta
  • 1919 Delta
  • 1919 Gamma

With the alphabetizing the letters in English order of the greek letters.

2) If the "normal" chapter order is disrupted by the fact that a later letter was chartered just before the new year and the earlier letter was chartered just after, it doesn't show them in order.

So for example if in the addition to the above, Epsilon was chartered in 1920 and Zeta was chartered in 1919 (and all up to Kappa were in 1920), the order in Bairds would go

  • 1919 Alpha
  • 1919 Beta
  • 1919 Delta
  • 1919 Gamma
  • 1919 Zeta
  • 1920 Epsilon
  • 1920 Eta
  • 1920 Iota
  • 1920 Kappa
  • 1920 Theta

Both of these should be avoided. I don't believe that WP:OR applies to the initial order of a table. I *really* think that we should try to put them in what the GLO appears to be using as their default order.Naraht (talk) 20:07, 18 August 2023 (UTC)

Bairds and the Almanac also have items out of Greek letter order even though the year is the same--I assume the editor has access to the full date but it makes no sense to the average person looking at the content. I may have mentioned before that I am also leaning toward Greek letter order simply because our tables allow charter date order (like Bairds) on demand, but it is impossible to get Greek letter order using the table sort. Thus, Greek letter order gives reader another way to look at the data. For content producers, Greek letter order makes it easier to identify missing chapters or to find a chapter to add updates. Of course, this assumes we are working with a "normal" organzation that attempts to assign chapters in order. We still would need to account for mergers where the chapters kept their old name or, heaven forbid, chapters that are allowed to pick their name randomly. (I know you are a "huge" fan of the latter). Rublamb (talk) 20:35, 18 August 2023 (UTC)
Well, *theoretically* we can do in the order of Bairds and put invisible sort entries in the table. For example: ''{{sort|1|Alpha}}'' ''{{sort|50|Beta Beta}}'' etc. This would make it go in "Greek Letter Order" when the column is selected for ordering, but *ugh*. My GLO does "normal". There are quite a few where the letters were assigned by national and then charterings were slightly out of order, and two chapters where their actual chartering was a decade or more out of assigned order, but every list for my fraternity. I've ever seen does it in the "normal" order regardless of the chartering date. OTOH, I do have to admire the degree to which Lambda Chi Alpha leans hard into its ordering.Naraht (talk) 21:44, 18 August 2023 (UTC)
I agree--most GLO websites list chapters in Greek alphabet order. The exception being when Google Maps is sorting the list, which makes it English alphabet order. In both of these instances, I find it easier to look for updates if the Wikipedia list is in Greek letter order, not date order. Any other opinions on this? Rublamb (talk) 01:13, 19 August 2023 (UTC)

Date formatting...

After quickly looking at Delta Phi Alpha. The *worst* format for the dates is anything with Month and Day (in either order) in the first two positions. The templates simply can't tell whether 11-8-2020 or 12-5-2020 goes first (Is it November 8th before December 5th or May 12th before August 11th. As a human we can tell which it is based on whether there is a 10-18-1990 or an 18-10-1990 in the list, but please avoid them if possible. OTOH, anything with year first is *always* month second and *day* third and anything with the month spelled out is fine. (I know I'm not saying anything the regulars here don't already know, but just in case)Naraht (talk) 02:48, 21 August 2023 (UTC)

Even more fun, I just realized that *I* was the one who copied it from the national website at https://deltaphialpha.org/chapters/ *and* that I copied straight (probably used a cut and paste from their spreadsheet) a list that includes a chapter having chartered on February 30th, 1931. I need a drink.Naraht (talk) 02:58, 21 August 2023 (UTC)

Gamma Epsilon Tau - Professional?

Right now, Gamma Epsilon Tau is on the Template:Professional fraternities , but since Jax MN's edit of December 9, 2021, the template is no longer included. I'd just put it back in the article, but looking at the Gamma Epsilon Tau article, I'm not sure what about the group made it included in the independent professionals. Ideas?Naraht (talk) 21:40, 22 August 2023 (UTC)

The article isn't very helpful. Was it ever in Baird's? Currently, it is on the Professional fraternities and sororities list and not in Honor society. I tried dividing those two lists a while back, but admit to giving up before the job was finished. Regardless of what they call themselves, it goes back to what they do and how much involvement is required. If you just meet the requirements, pay, and get to wear the cords--it is an honor society. If they have meetings, host programs, and continue to be involved after gradaution, it could be professional fraternity. I have noticed some crossover with membership to national umbrella groups. This website says they provide networking for undergraduates and alumni which sounds more professional. Rublamb (talk) 22:13, 22 August 2023 (UTC)
It seems to me that, as they use Greek letters, even if they appear as more of an organization versus fully 'fraternal', they should be classed for our part as a Professional Fraternity. We even extend that blanket to one of the women in communications groups, which eventually abandoned their Greek letter name. So there is precedent. For an infobox, the fraternal template offers more helpful fields versus the 'organizational' template. Thus this is a compromise, but the best one. Also, for the record, they are not listed in the 19th nor 20th edition of Baird's. Jax MN (talk) 22:19, 22 August 2023 (UTC)

Puerto Rico fraternities

Does anyone know a source for info on PR-based fraternities? Rublamb (talk) 00:29, 25 January 2023 (UTC)

Not particularly. I tried Google searching for the first two on the list of Puerto Rico Fraternities (Mu Alpha Phi and Phi Eta Mu) and didn't get anything particularly focused. I'm not sure it is as bad as the Philippines, but still not as easy as USA.Naraht (talk) 12:58, 30 January 2023 (UTC)
Please let me know if there is anything specif you would like to know and I can try and find a source even if it is in spanish. Most sources for Puerto Rico GLO will be in spanish. El Johnson (talk) 17:59, 3 May 2023 (UTC)
@Eljohnson15: I just did some work on Eta Gamma Delta. It would be great if we could find a source to update the chapter list and / or to document some of the unsourced content. Rublamb (talk) 05:17, 27 August 2023 (UTC)

One source for all, not so much.. The oldest ones were included in very old copies of Bayrds. I have included a lot of references for Phi Sigma Alpha, including a recent a local bill to declare a state Fraternities and Sororities Day that mentions the oldest ones. El Johnson (talk) 15:20, 3 May 2023 (UTC)

I think that would be welcome. Frankly at this point, trying to make sure the list of Puerto Rican Fraternities is correct is tenuous. And I'm not sure why they dropped them, but I'll check some of my earlier copies of Baird's. I figure the ones from the 1930s would be the place to start.Naraht (talk) 19:13, 3 May 2023 (UTC)
Morey Noble, Angel (March 7, 2023). "P. de la C. 1653" (in Spanish). House of Representatives of Puerto Rico: 1–3. Retrieved April 3, 2023. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help) This is the local bill to declare a state Fraternities and Sororities Day that mentions the oldest ones in spanish.
Eta Gamma Delta - Baird, William Raimond; John Robson (1977). Baird's Manual of American College Fraternities, Issue 19. G. Banta Co. p. 120.
Mu Alpha Phi - Baird, William Raimond (1977). Baird's Manual of American College Fraternities. Menasha, Wisconsin: Banta Publishing Company. p. 73. ISBN 0-9637159-0-9.
Phi Sigma Alpha - Baird, William Raimond; Robson, John (1977). Baird's Manual of American College Fraternities, Issue 19. G. Banta Co. p. 120. El Johnson (talk) 20:06, 4 May 2023 (UTC)

List of Zeta Beta Tau chapters

This article just had active chapter names and institutions. Using the Almanac and the fraternity's website, I created a complete list of collegiate and alumni chapters. Can someone with a post-1970 Baird's take a look? It looks like there were at least 3 national mergers--the Almanac mentions two. In the process, chapter names were reassigned and, in many cases, were rechartered to the original school. I caught a couple of times where the Almanac had dates crossed between chapters. And there are too many that appear to be active at the same time with the same name. I added (First), (Second), etc. to help see this more clearly, but there is some randomness with names and date order at the same time as the mergers. I may have it as close as possible, but hoping there is another source to answer some of these questions. Oh, and feel free to add some locations as that was where I stopped. Rublamb (talk) 10:14, 21 August 2023 (UTC)

Its a little trickier. Phi Alpha merged into Phi Sigma Delta , Kappa Nu merged into Phi Epsilon Pi and the both Phi Sigma Delta and Phi Epsilon Pi merged into Zeta Beta Tau.16:53, 22 August 2023 (UTC)
Shouldn't the mergers that pre-date Phi Sigma Delta and Phi Epsilon Pi merger into Zeta Beta Tau be covered in articles for those fraternities? Or do you mean it complicates chapter names? Rublamb (talk) 03:41, 23 August 2023 (UTC)
Rublamb To some degree neither. ZBT didn't memory wipe its mergers the way that some others do. The Organization name actually includes all five names. But I think at least some names were kept through multiple mergers. :(Naraht (talk) 16:53, 27 August 2023 (UTC)

Sorting on List of Omega Delta Phi chapters

Does anyone understand why List of Omega Delta Phi chapters doesn't show sort buttons? It uses template:fratchapterstart which should have it.Naraht (talk) 04:44, 29 August 2023 (UTC)

The table template I normally use is "wikitable sortable", allowing some more flexibility in named fields.
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Chapter
! Charter date and range
! Institution
! City or county
! State district or province
! Status
! References
|- 
|''Alpha'' 
|{{dts|1869|01|01}} – 1888 
|[[Virginia Military Institute]]
|[[Lexington, Virginia|Lexington]]
|[[Virginia]]
|Inactive
|{{Efn|Chapter went dormant twice because of anti-fraternity policies.}}
|}
Jax MN (talk) 06:04, 29 August 2023 (UTC)
{{FratChapterStart}} already includes that and simplifies the code to avoid the need for the template headers. It looks like someone messed up the formatting and added an extra line, which I have removed. Primefac (talk) 07:10, 29 August 2023 (UTC)
Thanks for the fix to my example. If memory serves, I began using the template headers when I encountered a few such lists that demanded odd or unique titles for certain fields. One denoting "State or Province", another was "Country", and in a few cases we had to elaborate on which of several merger partners a chapter came from, in a surviving fraternity. Jax MN (talk) 07:51, 29 August 2023 (UTC)

Date sorting the Memorial chapter

Something that I've run into on Omega Delta Phi. Omega chapter is a memorial chapter. (When brothers die they are said to join Omega chapter). Where should Omega end up when sorting on date?

  • Before the first chapter
  • Always last (set a sort corresponding to a date of year 9999)
  • immediately after Psi (or the equivalent prior chapter name).

I'm leaning toward the second (9999), comments?Naraht (talk) 13:00, 29 August 2023 (UTC)

If it has an official "founding" date (or order) then it should be in the sequence with everything else, otherwise I agree to put it always last. Primefac (talk) 13:12, 29 August 2023 (UTC)
So the information should be when the fraternity selected that Omega should be used as a memorial chapter? (If known)Naraht (talk) 14:02, 29 August 2023 (UTC)
I've thought about it some more, and there's no way for someone to be initiated into the chapter; it's basically an honorary chapter, so it should sort last. Primefac (talk) 14:07, 29 August 2023 (UTC)
I don't know that we need a hard and fast rule. When a colony is formed, sometimes these are at the end of the list and sometimes, as re-colonizations, they are mixed in with chapters whose status is Active. I suspect many memorial chapters are designated or reserved well prior to when, er, their number comes up, maybe sparked by the first significant death in the family. --I would NOT want to add them out of sync with the otherwise standard alphabetization plan, in that case. Rather, I think it best to leave it in alphabetical order. This may avoid future edit cycles: New editors who don't know of this policy could, perhaps regularly, add the missing chapter in series without looking for it in a name sort or at the bottom of the list, thus creating a duplicate. I say, choice #3. Jax MN (talk) 15:47, 29 August 2023 (UTC)
I'm *not* talking about the order that the user would see when the table came up *or* the order in the source, I'm *specifically* talking about when the chapters are sorted by chartering date.
So Mu Mu Mu (fictional) Sorority uses Alpha Omega as their Memorial chapter. Given that they use "standard order" otherwise, Alpha Omega would be between Alpha Psi and Beta Alpha in both the source and default situation with no chartering date. When, OTOH, the user clicks the sort on the chartering date column, where should Alpha Omega end up? I think at the *very* end (give it a value of 9999 and hide it) Note, While we've tracked down what the Memorial chapter is for a number of GLOs, the date that Mu Mu Mu decided that Alpha Omega would be their Memorial chapter seems at most to be a note, *not* something that should affect the order (or be listed as the chartering date).Naraht (talk) 18:32, 29 August 2023 (UTC)
That makes more sense to me. Thus the default, for this narrow case, would force the memorial chapter to show up in alphabetical order as a default, regardless of when it was officially created, but would show at the bottom when date sorted, first to last. Jax MN (talk) 18:59, 29 August 2023 (UTC)
Yes, exactly, do you support?Naraht (talk) 19:12, 29 August 2023 (UTC)
Yes. I support as you most recently clarified. Jax MN (talk) 22:13, 29 August 2023 (UTC)
I think at the end. Rublamb (talk) 19:50, 29 August 2023 (UTC)

Alpha Sigma Tau

An editor has recently blanked extensive information formerly on the Alpha Sigma Tau article. Consisting of the Symbols section, also publications and all aspects of mission statement, creed, or themes, the page was severely curtailed as of August 30, 2023. The rationale was stated that these items cited self-published references.

In response, I added a Baird's 20th reference, in which I see that Baird's had discussed all the deleted symbolism, publications and creed, and other such topics, in its listing for Alpha Sigma Tau. Because there were numerous edits to blank these sections, a manual revert will be needed - in case someone wants to dig into this.

Nevertheless, I know that some of our Project editors take a more stringent view of mission statements or anything that comes close to it. I note that the AST article was a bit long in this area, but I fully disagree with so extensive of a culling. Perhaps a 25% reduction would have been more reasonable. I've had a previous exchange with Primefac on this; our compromise result was to allow thin mention of a basic creed or mission statement, but to leave the more extensive treatment to be kept on a national organization's own website, not here. Further, it seems all of us accept the value of including a Symbolism section, and Publications, often under a "Traditions" header. Are we in alignment? Jax MN (talk) 15:32, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

Sacrificed chapters

After looking at the snippets of The History of Phi Mu: The First 130 Years , I became aware that the reason that Zeta chapter at Chevy Chase went inactive was as a sacrifice because the NPC required a certain level of degree offering(?) (not sure accreditation is the correct term in 1911) for all chapters for the sororities that belonged. It also happened to Upsilon chapter at St. Mary's Seminary as well.

I believe the Alpha chapter of Sigma Mu Sigma was sacrificed *twice* for organizations either joining the NIC or becoming Senior (back when there were Junior/Senior members of the NIC).

Does this make sense to include as a note for the chapter in a listing? Naraht (talk) 14:19, 2 September 2023 (UTC)

Sure. Perfect content for efn. Rublamb (talk) 15:40, 2 September 2023 (UTC)
I agree. It really helps readers understand the difficult decisions that were made during formation of the modern GLO system. Jax MN (talk) 17:01, 2 September 2023 (UTC)

Sigma Chi

I am finishing up the Sigma Chi project which involved List of Sigma Chi chapters and List of Sigma Chi alumni chapters. The former was such a mess that I started from scratch. There are a couple of issues that I need advice/help with.

  1. ) Should we merge these two articles or change the name of the former List of Sigma Chi collegiate chapters? The reason I am considering merging is that the alumni list only includes primary sources (which I added) and, therefore does not meet notability requirements on its own.
  2. ) Sigma Chi assigns three-letter Greek names (Sigma Chi Alpha, Sigma Chi Zeta, etc.) to their colonies which they called associate chapters. When the colony becomes a chapter, it receives a new name following regular fraternity nomenclature. Currently, there are several colonies which are a rebook of chapters that went dormant. As has been our habit, I noted their status as Colony and added an efn with the associate chapter name and date, if known. However, this is a unique situation because the colony has a name that is different from that of the chapter. Is my current listing fine or should I list all associate chapters by their assigned names? (See the very bottom of the table for the associate chapter/colonies that are not linked to a former chapter)
  3. ) It has been a bit of a chore, but I have used several older books on Sigma Chi to identify the full charter date. However, I have a huge gap because I cannot find vol. 5-7 of The History of Sigma Chi online. Vol. 1-4 are published through Hathi Trust and I found an earlier history book through Sigma Chi and the Internet Archive. Does anyone have access to a source with the dates ranging from 1919 to 1950? Note that all chapters have at least a year; I am looking for the month and date as well.
  4. ) For some reason, there are several gaps where chapter names were not assigned. I currently have these include with the "Unassigned" status. Is it helpful to leave these gaps in the table, or should I remove them?
  5. ) The Sigma Chi article has a large misconduct section. I think many of these are trivial and should be moved to the chapter table. Thoughts?

Rublamb (talk) 21:08, 5 September 2023 (UTC)

Big project. In this case, and with others that have a substantial number of chapters, I'd prefer we divide the collegians from the alumni chapters. These articles serve somewhat different audiences. However, I see your point about Primary Sources. As this information "may be proven by any educated person with access", and because (I think) List articles have a moderated requirement for citations, unless the issue is forced, I'd split the two.
If a former colony name goes down the memory hole once it is installed as an active chapter, I'm fine with that. We can use a separate section for Associate chapters, understanding that these names and locations are transitory.
Keep the simple name, by moving your content to the list of chapters.
Sigma Chi would have sufficient staff to complete the list of specific chapter dates. Ask 'em.
I'd suggest leaving the unused chapter names within a series visible, in plain text. Status should be Unassigned.
Misconduct: Detractors have plastered on these small controversies. I'd only keep them if they are A) Within 10 years and were picked up by national media and have been or are in the midst of litigation that actually went somewhere... Or, B) nationally notable, or C) led to legislative resolution on the state or federal level, or, are otherwise nationally significant rather than significant to the chapter. Otherwise demote the citation to an EFN against the chapter, and if it went anywhere. Jax MN (talk) 22:32, 5 September 2023 (UTC)
@Jax MN: By now already seen my solution. I added an alumni section with a link to the main article List of Sigma Chi alumni chapters. Now it makes sense for the article's title to be "List of Sigma Chi chapters" and we don't have to move the article to the longer "List of Sigma Chi colligate chapters". I also created a See Also on the alumni page that links to this article.
I did decide to create a section for the associate chapters (colonies). Their system is slightly different as these are technically short-lived locals who get university recognition as a fraternity before becoming a colony. In looking through the efn info, these names do get recycled. With the WP guideline of only including active colonies, names will come off the associate chapter list when the former chapter or new chapter is chartered. This will make sense to members of Sigma Chi as that is their system. Thanks for suggesting a separate section--it really does make the most sense in this case.
The only action lacking (other than clean-up help) is pulling data from the Sigma Chi article on chapter closings. I would love help with this as I am really tired of Sigma Chi at this point! What demon decided to have an incredibly long list of chapters with only Greek letters for the chapter names--and then put them in state order? Rublamb (talk) 13:44, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

Chicora College

I have published an article for Chicora College, also known as Chicora College for Women. In 1925, these were its GLO: Alpha Omega, Alpha Zeta, Beta Chi, Delta Mu, Delta Rho, Delta Sigma, Gamma Delta, Pi Alpha Gamma Sigma, Pi Beta Delta, Pi Sigma Delta, Pi Sigma Mu, Sigma Alpha, Sigma Phi, Tau Beta Tau, and Zeta Phi Delta. Does anyone feel like sorting through which of these are local and which are national (and needed a link)? Rublamb (talk) 00:27, 4 December 2023 (UTC)

I don't recognize any of these as national, but I did link in that Gamma chapter of Alpha Sigma Alpha (List of Alpha Sigma Alpha chapters) was at Chicora.Naraht (talk) 05:36, 4 December 2023 (UTC)
Thanks! I remembered to check the Almanac. It just list a bunch of locals. Now I am not sure they should be in the article, except for Alpha Sigma Alpha. Rublamb (talk) 15:35, 4 December 2023 (UTC)

Substandard chapter lists (updated)

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) Rublamb (talk) 19:50, 9 June 2023 (UTC)

I sort of squeed when I saw that dts was needed for list of triangle chapters. Please me know if any other lists need dts. I'll get to Triangle as soon as a have an hour or so free.Naraht (talk) 21:26, 10 June 2023 (UTC)
Happy to make your weekend. Here is what I found: Delta Phi Alpha, List of Delta Sigma Theta collegiate chapters, Farmhouse, Kappa Delta, Omega Delta Phi, Sigma Tau Gamma Rublamb (talk) 23:16, 10 June 2023 (UTC)
I have removed completed projects to make the list easier to read. Rublamb (talk) 22:32, 21 August 2023 (UTC)
RublambAs a note, if *all* of the entries in a column are in a subset of possible text that includes years, dates (with references) and apparently hyphens, the the sorttable functions are smart enough to treat the entire column as dates and sort them correctly. This currently applies to List of Sigma Tau Gamma chapters, adding dts here isn't necessary at the moment, but probably a good idea. I think focusing first on the ones that doesn't apply to (so that all the Aprils show up at the beginning on a sort) is better.Naraht (talk) 04:40, 29 August 2023 (UTC)
@Naraht, Delta Phi Alpha needs date templates as it is currenlty in numerical format. Rublamb (talk) 06:58, 7 December 2023 (UTC)
Rulbamb and worse, it is in 5/4/2020 format where you need to look at other dates to figure out if it is mm/dd/yyyy or dd/mm/yyyy. I'll get to it when I can.Naraht (talk) 14:29, 7 December 2023 (UTC)

Awesome statement in Alpha Delta Pi chapter list

I'm putting the information in "The Adelphean of Alpha Delta Pi, Volume 7" pages 19-23 (https://books.google.com/books?id=Ut8TAAAAIAA) in to List of Alpha Delta Pi chapters. In this list of chapters and the information about them up to Phi chapter is:

"14. Xi Chapter (In naming the chapters this letter was omitted by mistake)"

I don't know if it makes me feel better in that mistakes were made or worse that we are pulling from information that is weird in the first place.... Naraht (talk) 21:51, 29 August 2023 (UTC)

Refreshing honesty. While it created a somewhat-duplicative reference, I added this item with the specific page and a quote as a reference against the Xi chapter listing on the chapter list. Elsewhere, that source was simply used for dates. Jax MN (talk) 16:08, 29 September 2023 (UTC)

General updates

Created List of Iota Phi Theta brothers from Iota Phi Theta, and cats for Delta Delta Delta, Alpha Chi Omega, Delta Phi Epsilon (social), Iota Phi Theta and Sigma Gamma Rho. All have at least one of "members" or "chapters".Naraht (talk) 13:35, 16 September 2023 (UTC)

Consistency of names.

In Category:Lists of chapters of North American Interfraternity Conference members by society, all but one are named "List of Mu Mu Mu chapters(and other things)" But, Chi Psi is the exception (List of chapters of Chi Psi. Rublamb, I see that you were the one that pulled it out of Chi Psi. Any objections to moving this to List of Chi Psi chapters? Naraht (talk) 02:40, 24 September 2023 (UTC)

No, that was a slip on my part. I fixed it. Rublamb (talk) 02:50, 24 September 2023 (UTC)
I recently moved several articles to the List of Mu Mu Mu chapters format. On our WP watchlist, we still have List of Alpha Sigma Phi chapters, colonies, and interest groups and List of Sigma Nu chapters and colonies. The shorter name has a redirect that needs to be deleted; I submitted a request some time back but no action. Is there another way to do this (besides cut and paste)?
We also have a range of names for the alumni articles: List of Mu Mu Mu brothers, List of Mu Mu Mu sisters, and List of Mu Mu Mu members. There might be another stray format out there, but these are the ones on the WP watchpage. I would like to change them all to members, but wanted to know what others think. Rublamb (talk) 03:29, 24 September 2023 (UTC)
Both of Alpha Sigma Nu are going to be complex, the redirects have history to them, and in fact, I may be responsible for the Sigma Nu merge being in that direction, though a while ago. I think putting them into the Wikipedia:Requested moves/Technical requests and see what we get.
As for brothers, sisters, members, (& alumni !), that's going to end up in Wikipedia:RMPM. We'll have to make a complete list.Naraht (talk) 03:48, 24 September 2023 (UTC)
I moved the members pages that we have on the watch list, but I am pretty sure that is not a complete list. Rublamb (talk) 07:45, 29 September 2023 (UTC)
Still a lot at Category:Lists of members of North American Interfraternity Conference members by society. I've started on moving some of the other groups under Category:Lists_of_members_of_United_States_student_societies and its subcats. This also leaves one oddball, List of Sinfonians, change to List of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia members?Naraht (talk) 08:18, 29 September 2023 (UTC)
Yes to Sinfonians. I remember seeing that one before. I know it is making the name longer, but it is a nickname. For anyone who helps with the moving project, be sure to update the Main link on the GLO article and to update or add to the WP Watchlist. I guess we are still missing a bunch on our watchlist. Rublamb (talk) 16:12, 29 September 2023 (UTC)
Some of these seem to lack the WP on the Talk Page too. Might as well try to catch all issues in this cleanup. Rublamb (talk) 16:27, 29 September 2023 (UTC)
I think all the articles are moved, at least from looking through the categories.Naraht (talk) 19:32, 29 September 2023 (UTC)
Agreed. I also think I have added all to the watch list and added the WP to their talk pages. Thanks again for working on the Categories--that really came in handy with this project. Rublamb (talk) 20:40, 29 September 2023 (UTC)
@Naraht, One more tricky item that only you know how to fix. A while ago, another editor told me that a founder of Delta Sigma Theta didn't need a "Howard Alumni" category because "Delta Sigma Theta founders" was a subcategory of "Howard Alumni". Sure, enough, "Delta Sigma Theta founders" does not show up as a subgroup of the National Pan-Hellenic Council under Category:Lists_of_members_of_United_States_student_societies. Is this fixable and how many more are set up like this? Rublamb (talk) 22:18, 29 September 2023 (UTC)
Rublamb. I think that it makes sense for Category:Alpha_Kappa_Alpha_founders to be added to Category:Lists_of_members_of_National_Pan-Hellenic_Council_members_by_society. It may also make sense for Category:Alpha_Kappa_Alpha_founders to be added to Category:Howard_University_alumni. (and equivalent for other groups.)Naraht (talk) 19:24, 1 October 2023 (UTC)
That works for me. We may be missing some others. When working on another project yesterday, I ran across the founder of Sigma Gamma Rho who was not on our Watchlist. Rublamb (talk) 20:00, 1 October 2023 (UTC)
I discovered another group with no consistency of names: GLO at specific campuses. It might be called List of fraternities and sororities at XYZ University; List of XYZ Univerity Greek organizations; List of University XYZ Greek life; XYZ University Greeks, List of XYZ University fraternity and sorority system; List of XYZ University fraternities and sororities. Can we pick one format? I am leaning toward List of XYZ University fraternities and sororities. Rublamb (talk) 04:07, 13 October 2023 (UTC)

"Math" font

Anon provided an edit out of the blue, forcing a different format for Greek Letters. It's a nested template within the standard LANG template. See Phi Beta Kappa. I could be convinced. The serif font is more readable. Your thoughts? Jax MN (talk) 06:24, 24 September 2023 (UTC)

Even if it look better, this template is less likely to be found and used by the average editor, meaning that going in that direction would be making it harder for people to help with GLO articles. Also, we need to dig deeper--just because this font template was created for math and scientific formulas, that doesn't mean it is supposed to be used in context of language and prose. In other words, Anon may well be in error in using this template in the context. And, then, there is the shear volume of articles that would need updating. Rublamb (talk) 17:07, 24 September 2023 (UTC)
I've always thought serif fonts look better as Greek letters, but have long been resigned to using the sans serif fonts prevalent on Wikipedia, at least here. We could adopt this template variant, but it would be a significant amount of work to transition all incidents. One could write a bot to do this. But after consideration, while I like the font, I nevertheless don't think the effort would be worth the trouble. I'm not going to pursue this. Oh, and Rublamb, to respond to one of your points, I'm not concerned that as this came out of a math project, it wasn't intended for us. I don't think that would necessarily preclude us from using it. Jax MN (talk) 18:07, 24 September 2023 (UTC)
Comments. I don't like it, but that is probably that I'm just not used to Serifs. Yes, the Sweatshirts of the letters would generally include Serifs (I can't think of a *single* sweatshirt of Alpha Phi Omega (my fraternity) where the Phi has a simple vertical bar) and Baird's uses serifs but in here, it just doesn't feel right to me. And we already wrap it in lang, wrapping it in math seems a bit much. (But the transformation could *probably be handled by a bot).Naraht (talk) 21:25, 24 September 2023 (UTC)
I like serifs in print but am used to sans-serif online because is considered easier to read in that format (sorry, I am a former graphic designer). We also used to have to worry about a font being on the end-user's computer but I am pretty sure Wikipedia accounts for that in some fashion. I just think we have more important project underway. Rublamb (talk) 21:40, 24 September 2023 (UTC)
OK. I will let the editor who had offered this know of this discussion. Jax MN (talk) 23:02, 24 September 2023 (UTC)

Gamma Epsilon Pi

Gamma Epsilon Pi was a women's honor society in the field of commerce, founded in 1918, it merged with Beta Gamma Sigma (sort of male equivalent) in 1933. I have the Baird's entry for it that includes all of the chapters. The question is whether that belongs near the mention of the merger on the Beta Gamma Sigma page or in a separate section on List of Beta Gamma Sigma chapters page, or somehow combined, with the addition of efns. I think *somewhere* there should be a list of chapters starting with Alpha rather than just being auxiliary. (or since we actually have a full page in the 1927 Baird's just separate the entire thing into its own Gamma Epsilon Pi article?)Naraht (talk) 19:46, 29 September 2023 (UTC)

I'd like to give them credit where credit is due: here, a page or section listing the Gamma Epsilon Pi chapters and noting how they were dispensed with, would be reasonable. If you are energetic and wish to write a separate article about that sorority, kudos to you. That would match numerous precedents of previous Project work. Jax MN (talk) 20:08, 29 September 2023 (UTC)
My vote is for its own article. Rublamb (talk) 22:12, 29 September 2023 (UTC)
OK, took the redirect and made it into its own article Gamma Epsilon Pi. Still need to add in colors, magazine and pin description from the 1923. But probably up to C class. Also have gotten lucky with dates of chartering, though chapter roll is still in list form.Naraht (talk) 10:34, 30 September 2023 (UTC)
Jax MN Bot is still removing, we may have to choose to *only* have it in Gamma Epsilon Pi.Naraht (talk) 10:38, 30 September 2023 (UTC)
I uploaded a new image, very slightly cropped and axis corrected, which is in Commons and labeled as in the public domain due to age. Should suffice. Jax MN (talk) 19:30, 1 October 2023 (UTC)

Another college article debate

There is a current discussion on Talk:University of Louisiana at Lafayette about whether or not to include Greek life content. Rublamb (talk) 00:13, 10 October 2023 (UTC)

I just came across an earlier version of a similar comment on another college's talk page. One of the claims being made by those who want to delete the Greek Life content from the university article is that this info belongs on a stand-alone page such as Greek life at University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and not on the institutional page. They suggested that this the new norm. Rublamb (talk) 02:04, 10 October 2023 (UTC)
And if there isn't enough for its own page (not every school is UVA) then the local place is to fold it back to the school page.Naraht (talk) 11:32, 10 October 2023 (UTC)
Exactly. This is the first time I had run across the reasoning. I have responded to both instances, explaining that Greek Life articles are unusual and not the norm. Rublamb (talk) 18:20, 10 October 2023 (UTC)

Category:Fraternity and sorority houses

I've reorganized categories for Member and chapter lists, time for houses... :) Ideas...

  • It feels like the entire reason for the sorority subcat is to allow it to be part of Category:Buildings for women, not sure how I feel about that.
  • I'm intending to make subcats for any group with 3 or more. for example, Sigma Alpha Epsilon
  • Either the houses or the subcats will be added to the cat for that fraternity or sorority (or multiple GLOs if lived in by more than one)

Naraht (talk) 06:26, 10 October 2023 (UTC)

Another question. I *think* I saw that one of the entries in Category:Fraternity and sorority houses is a building that has been the National HQ for a Fraternity (office space, etc) but *not* housing for a chapter, does that belong in the cat (or a subcat?)Naraht (talk) 13:45, 10 October 2023 (UTC)
I am the one who added the chapter houses to our watch list. I think there are one or two that are now the national headquarters, were a alumni club house, or were a mix of a chapter house/alumni club. However, I don't remember any that weren't residential at some point, meaning they still find the name fraternity and sorority house. There are also some that are no longer being used by GLO, such as the buildings at Williams College. However, we can use this category if the building ever served as house
Are you removing the category as part of your project ? I noticed that you removed the Category:Fraternity and sorority houses from Delta Psi, Alpha Chapter building‎ earlier today. It is a fraternity house. My concern is that there is no other category that pulls these articles together or indicates their fraternal use. Based on the limited number, fraternity and sorority combined should work. This category impact photos in WikiCommons too. Rublamb (talk) 18:18, 10 October 2023 (UTC)
RublambThe one that is the HQ I was talking about is Shadowwood which was international HQ for Sigma Pi, but wasn't ever used for a chapter house.
Delta Psi, Alpha Chapter had both Category:Fraternity and sorority houses and Category:St. Anthony Hall and now has Category:St. Anthony Hall houses.Naraht (talk) 21:12, 10 October 2023 (UTC)
Oh, you created the subcategory St. Anthony Hall Houses. Sorry I did not catch that before. Shadowwood: its carriage house was used as a lodge to house people; so I think we can let it slide. As you know, I am not keen on creating a category for a single item. Two for a subcategory is probably okay in this instance; the fraternity will probably do more than two NRHP nominations given time. Rublamb (talk) 21:29, 10 October 2023 (UTC)
(Also, do we need three houses, or will two do to make a subcat?)Naraht (talk) 21:16, 10 October 2023 (UTC)

Complete

Or at least reached a reasonable stopping place. Sorority Houses are a subcat, *really* not sure how I feel about that, see above. Every group with two or more has had the groups moved into a subcat, either of the main cat or the sorority category. Most for any group is SAE with five. Leaving Shadowwood alone, but don't feel strongly in whether it should stay.Naraht (talk) 03:14, 11 October 2023 (UTC)

Next thing to look at categories for? :)Naraht (talk) 03:14, 11 October 2023 (UTC)

Would appreciate someone looking at my changes.Naraht (talk) 13:33, 11 October 2023 (UTC)
I will take a look. Did you do the National Pan-Hellenic Council? And we still needed to address a template for collegiate secret societies. Rublamb (talk) 14:31, 11 October 2023 (UTC)
I did not split out by Umbrella Group (as I indicated above, I'd actually prefer not even to split our Sororities). As far as I can tell, there are two for Alpha Phi Alpha, which is now its own group just like Kappa Sigma, for example and one for Alpha Rho Chi, a professional GLO. Other than that, all NIC (or former) and NPC.
What's with the collegiate secret societies?Naraht (talk) 14:45, 11 October 2023 (UTC)
It would be nice to have either a template for them or to include them in the GLO template, instead of a list at See Also. Rublamb (talk) 19:30, 11 October 2023 (UTC)

One of those days

I have been working on my expanded list of GLO-related colleges without an article. Today, a couple just needed a redirect to and update to an existing article. Nice! Then, I created two articles only to discover that we did not have chapter lists for two of the related GLOs. One has more than 1200 active chapters. But it gets worse. Writing the article about the Atlanta Conservatory of Music led to a horrible tragedy. The music school was on the 4th and 5th floors above a piano sales and manufacturer. The latter was a huge fire hazard that was known to the city's fire department. For some reason, a shooting gallery was added to the building's first floor. No one knows how the fire started as the factory workers were at lunch at the time. But three students died in the fire, including two who had just become engaged. (They died by a 5th floor window as 20,000+ people watched). One heroic teacher made her students jump from the 5th story to the roof of an adjacent three-story building. Many broken bones, but she saved their lives. The school seems to have operated for one more year and then disappeared as two families named it in two law suits equal to more than one million dollars today. I hate coming across certain types of misconduct in GLOs, but this was an outright buzzkill. Rublamb (talk) 05:00, 13 January 2024 (UTC)

Wouldn't this constitute misconduct or simply poor decision making on the part of teachers, not to mention crappy building codes and construction techniques? I don't see why the GLO would be blamed here... Jax MN (talk) 12:05, 13 January 2024 (UTC)
Oh, it was the school, the building owners, and the piano company (huge national) that were sued. Not the GLO. Rublamb (talk) 17:15, 13 January 2024 (UTC)

Proposal: Never use Greek Alone.

Another thing that I'd like to change. I'd like to make it policy(?) that an organization is never referred to *just* as its greek letters without them being written out in the english of the letters. So for example, if in the chapter list of Mu Mu Mu, that Omega chapter was formed from the local Alpha Beta Gamma that the Alpha Beta Gamma always be spelled out in English as opposed to using ΑΒΓ without spelling it out. For List of Lambda Chi Alpha chapters, I added ΘΚΝ to the first mention of Theta Kappa Nu in the article to show the link.Naraht (talk) 21:49, 18 August 2023 (UTC)

One of my pet peaves is a chapter list that is only in Greek letters. If we are writing for a general audience, we should never assume that everyone knows the Greek alphabet. Your approach seems to be the norm throughout Wikipedia. Rublamb (talk) 01:01, 19 August 2023 (UTC)
Just found an example of one that might need to be expanded in this way:List of fraternities and sororities at Trine University with lines like
  • ΓΗΑ – Gamma Eta Alpha (local), 1927–1931, became ΦΙΑ

The Gamma Eta Alpha is englishized, the Phi Iota Alpha isn't (and there are some examples where the what it became isn't mentioned anywhere else.)Naraht (talk) 01:12, 9 September 2023 (UTC)

I can answer, regarding this page. For the line you quoted, with the bare Greek letters ΦΙΑ, please also note that there is a separate line for that second fraternity, where Phi Iota Alpha is indeed spelled out. I considered this when creating that format; each of the fraternity names are fully written out at least once in the article, which will allow them to come up in search results. Where I've noted them a second or third time I used Greek letters, this was to help tighten up the page. It was a formatting compromise. Jax MN (talk) 06:55, 9 September 2023 (UTC)

Chartered date - Left Justified or Center Justified?

The example we have above of what a chapter entry in a chapter list should look like has the chartered date(s) *Left* Justified. OTOH, all of the groups that use FratChapterStart have (like Alpha Mu Sigma) their dates *Center* Justified. I personally think that Left Justified looks better, Opinions?Naraht (talk) 03:34, 24 September 2023 (UTC)

I prefer left justification as well. Jax MN (talk) 06:16, 24 September 2023 (UTC)
I don't like any content centered. Rublamb (talk) 16:56, 24 September 2023 (UTC)
Do we need a conversation there, or is this good enough?Naraht (talk) 21:11, 24 September 2023 (UTC)

Category:Delta Gamma founders

This sub-category only is only used with one person and only has the potential for four total--the number of founders of this group. There is a category for Delta Gamma and for sorority founders. Does it make sense to remove this one? Rublamb (talk) 23:24, 7 July 2023 (UTC)

Probably. Primefac (talk) 17:25, 8 July 2023 (UTC)
Agreed. This *still* gets into the question of whether being a founder is Notable, but for that one, even if they are, not enough.Naraht (talk) 13:39, 11 July 2023 (UTC)
@Naraht, can you deal with deleting/merging? Thanks, Rublamb (talk) 15:26, 11 July 2023 (UTC)

More general comments

Rublamb It's a broader issue. Firstly, according to the Delta Gamma article there are three founders and articles exist for all three, *but* two of three( Eva Webb Dodd, and Anna Boyd Ellington) have been changed within the last couple of years from full articles to redirects to Delta Gamma#History presumably based on BLP1E. We can undo the redirect and that will completely solve things). However...

It does lead *back* to the question we've had for *years*. "Does being a founder of a GLO make one notable?". And while we *can* have the Redirects include Category:Delta Gamma Founders , I'm not sure that really fixes things. (I picked a founding sister for Alpha Kappa Alpha that I didn't know that had an article at random, Joanna Mary Berry Shields and I'm really not sure that other than being one of the founders of AKA she qualifies for an article. )Naraht (talk) 15:54, 11 July 2023 (UTC)

Meant to respond to this earlier. A while back, I upgraded many WP stubs, including several articles about founders. Based on that experience, my short answer is: it depends. In some cases, the article was only about a person's relationship to a GLO, but they went on to be very notable for something else. Solid keep once expanded. For people like Eva Webb Dodd and Anna Boyd Ellington, the only sources are sorority provided bios and maybe an obituary. The former are brief and there is also a lack of info on their role as founders. The way the Wikipedia policy reads, individuals in this category will never qualify for their own article because their notability is "inherited".
You might think the same standard would apply to any sorority founder who went on to be a school teacher and/or housewife. However, the Divine Nine is the exception because there are several books that provide significant secondary coverage on each founder which makes them meet notability requirements. Some of these books also provide details on the founder's work within the sorority, such as offices filled, chapters established, and sorority activities such as in participating in suffrage marches. I even found a museum that has online exhibits on some of these individuals as part of Black History Month.
It really comes down to whether or not there are sources that are independent of the GLO and its founding institution. Most founders, especially women, are probably not going to meet the requirement for a stand-alone article. The best solution is to include a section of short bios in the GLO article. Maybe we should find or create a good example of this. At the same time, we need to improve existing founder articles that we believe are worth keeping so that they will not be challenged. Since I have access to Newspapers.com, the NYT archive, Washington Post, and the Divine Nine book, I can help with improvements. Just need some direction on our WP priorities. That is this vs. chapter lists. I am thinking this might be more important than chapter lists for honorary, non-collegiate, and professional GLO. But we should discuss. Rublamb (talk) 22:26, 17 September 2023 (UTC)
This is a bees nest that I have hesitated to kick. Some editors, Deletionists, are committed to deleting Start class articles about fraternity and sorority founders who are not otherwise notable. However, at some point I hope to successfully promote a carveout to the notability rules for our Project whereby founders of an article-worthy society are intrinsically notable. Especially for the general fraternities and sororities, these names are often memorized and memorialized by the groups. Annually, hundreds, even thousands of collegians learn their names and in many cases they learn the contributions of these persons. Such biographical information may not be picked up the national media, but these are far more significant than later subordinate chapter founders, or general members. Ought they earn separate articles? Maybe not, due to lack of gravity for their later careers. These nevertheless ought to be listed on the main article, and possibly outlined with 3-4 sentence bios on those pages, if not their own page. Jax MN (talk) 22:52, 17 September 2023 (UTC)
I tried to take each stub I worked on to C class or that very reason. Some of these had no sources to start with, so were at high risk for deletion. (Most of the remaining stubs are National Register chapter houses which are not at risk for deletion). We should probably look at start class articles as well--sometimes that rating was generous or the text is completely copied from an old book or fraternity website. Others may just need a rating upgrade. However, there are way more than the some 250 stubs list I started with, so it will be a big project. Smaller if we focus on founders. Yeah, given the time frame of a policy change I think a brief bio for each foundier within the main article would be a good solution. I recall updating a fraternity article that did this with a photo for each founder; however, their prose was not a good example and the bios lacked sources. Rublamb (talk) 23:31, 17 September 2023 (UTC)
Lest it go down the memory hole, maybe six months ago, a zealous Deletionist removed two articles on SAE founders via the AfD process. I thought that incorrect at the time, and still do. Jax MN (talk) 00:01, 18 September 2023 (UTC)
My very short answer to the original question is "no", in that we should not be "carving out an exception" to GNG or any other policy so that we can have microstubs on GLO founders. If they are notable individuals they will meet GNG, and if not they can have a paragraph (or two) in the history/founding members/etc section of the relevant GLO article. Primefac (talk) 08:47, 6 October 2023 (UTC)

Delta Omicron & Categories

I *think* List of Delta Omicron National Honorary Members should be added to Category:Lists of members of Professional Fraternity Association members by society, but I'm unclear whether List of Delta Omicron patrons should be kept in the group or removed. I'm having problems figuring out whether Patrons and Patronesses (which *are* a different thing than the Honorary Members) are members or not. Naraht (talk) 03:53, 24 September 2023 (UTC)

Looking through their membership types, a honory member has significant professional accomplishment. A patron is an honory member who has achieved professional pracoomplishment at a national level. So both are honorary members. However, I wish I had never looked at the patron page--it has a ton of redlinked names and numerous citations with error message. I couldn't find a list of regular members for this group. I think both types honorary and patron pages should be merged into an new article called List of Delta Omicron members. Each type of member could have a section and actual members could be included. Thoughts? Rublamb (talk) 18:53, 28 September 2023 (UTC)
I'm fine with them on the same page, but I'm not sure these should be kept separate, For many groups, these lists seem grouped by *type* of position. i.e. If a President of the United States was an honorary member and a Vice President of the United States had joined as a student, they would be in the same grouping.Naraht (talk) 19:02, 28 September 2023 (UTC)
Yes, we could easily include Honorary or Patron in the class column if we merge the two lists. And, it can be split by type again if the list gets too long. Since I need a break from Psi Chi, I will work on this (if that is okay with you). Rublamb (talk) 20:33, 28 September 2023 (UTC)
Merger and name change completed. Rublamb (talk) 07:44, 29 September 2023 (UTC)

List of Delta Tau Delta chapters

Ordinarily I had updates like "I'm a member of the board and therefore I know that..." but in this case, they were right *and* we actually have the chapter name correct in the article on Dartmouth. Now if he'd just give info on half of the rest of the chapters chartered prior to 1900. I'd forgotten how much of a *mess* the DTD chapter listing is (not the article, the existence of those chapters).Naraht (talk) 06:23, 6 October 2023 (UTC)

Substandard chapter lists (updated again)

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)

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)

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

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Fraternities_and_Sororities/Archive_10&oldid=1199686291"