Miscellaneous desk
< March 18	<< Feb \| March \| Apr >>	March 20 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Miscellaneous Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

March 19

Violation of the rules: self promotion

Isn't self-promotion on wiki forbidden? Here is a post created by the user/account holder which appears to do just that...self promote. There is nothing famous or notable about this individual as there are thousands of female attorneys in the state of Georgia. Thanks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:StephanieWoodsMiller

TraceyJHall (talk) 03:46, 19 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

You're correct that Wikipedia isn't meant to be a web host for people's personal pages. See Wikipedia:User pages#On others' user pages for info on how to proceed. Dismas|^(talk) 03:54, 19 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

See Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/User:StephanieWoodsMiller. Hot Stop talk-contribs 04:01, 19 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Note however, that "notability" is irrelevant for WP:USER pages. ~:71.20.250.51 (talk) 04:17, 19 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

And that WP:BLP does apply. Nil Einne (talk) 14:24, 19 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

As you will see from Wikipedia:User pages#On others' user pages, one option is to add {{noindex}} to the user's page. This will have the effect of preventing the page being indexed by search engines, but will still allow the user's information to be visible if that page is directly accessed. That is, the information will be preserved but the self-promotional element will be substantially reduced, particularly because the user in question hasn't actually made any edits other than her self-promotional user-page creation. RomanSpa (talk) 14:33, 19 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Neighbor

Can call anyone a neighbor who doesn't live next to you nor in the same house but simply in the same street? --2.245.92.86 (talk) 18:36, 19 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

It's not common, but yes, you can. KägeTorä - (^影_虎) (Chin Wag) 18:39, 19 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Sure you can, for at least everyone in your neighborhood. In fact, the Biblical commandment "Thou shalt not bare false witness against they neighbor" is usually taken to include everyone as a "neighbor", not just "next door neighbors". StuRat (talk) 18:44, 19 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The term neighbor comes from words meaning "near dweller",[1] so whether one qualifies as a neighbor or not would depend on the specific usage of "near". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 19:26, 19 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I'm sure the other commandment "Love thy neighbour as thyself" was not meant to extend only to your literal next-door neighbour, or even just people in the same street, suburb, city, or even country. It applies to anyone at all with whom you ever come into contact. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 19:55, 19 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

KageTora lives in England, and I wonder whether this is another of those differences between varieties of English. In American English, neighbor normally refers to anyone living nearby. Of course, nearby is a relative term. In an urban area, it might be residents of the same building or the same block. In a rural area, it might be anyone living within a few miles. Does neighbor (or neighbour) usually only mean a person who lives next door in varieties of English other than American? Marco polo (talk) 20:02, 19 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

BE speaker here. If someone said "my neighbour came round to complain about the noise", I'd assume in the absence of other evidence that it was a next-door neighbour; if someone said "a neighbour of mine" or "one of my neighbours" I'd be less likely to reach this conclusion. The term "next-door neighbour" is entirely commonplace in the Britain, so I'd conclude that although an unqualified "neighbour" would make me think of the person in the next house or flat, "neighbour" might equally mean someone from another house in the same street, or another flat in the same block, as otherwise there would be no need to have the more precise phrase "next-door neighbour" in British vocabulary. It's probably worth pointing out that in the UK "neighbourhood" is used less, as far as I can see, than "neighborhood" is used in the US (and this ngram search seems to support my impression) and that I'd be unlikely to use the term "neighbour" for a person from the wider neighbourhood, but would rather restrict it to someone from my street only (and probably, if it's a longer street, to my part of the street only). Valiantis (talk) 22:17, 19 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I think of people living a few miles away as neighbours, but then my nearest neighbour lives nearly a quarter of a mile away! Dbfirs 23:28, 19 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

As always, etymology is your friend, and context is key. The roots of neighbour are those of nigh and boor, "near dweller". Interesting how often wars break out with the Boors. The fact that we have the term next-door neighbour proves we have non-next-door neighbours. μηδείς (talk) 00:14, 20 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

No, it is not always your friend. It produces the right answer this time, though. --50.100.193.30 (talk) 01:45, 22 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, etymology is a science, and using it is always your friend. That has nothing to do with the fact that people will draw incorrect inferences. If that is a problem, you might as well shut your eyes and willfully walk into ditches. μηδείς (talk) 05:03, 22 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

An interesting use of neighbor comes in the prologue of the Parable of the Good Samaritan, AKA the Great Commandment. The concept "who is my neighbor" is specifically discussed between Jesus and the teachers of the law and provides the backdrop for the Parable. Nearly every English translation uses the word "neighbor" here. Does the original Greek word (I wonder) have the same context and meaning? --Jayron32 02:42, 20 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Greek word is πλησἰον which the dictionary says is neighbour. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 11:43, 20 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Transliterated as "plision" (is there an English cognate?) and meaning "close" or "nearby", which puts us back where we were, using that flexible term. The guy the next block over is far away compared to my next-door neighbor, but he's close compared to the Indian Ocean. The Indian Ocean is far from us in the US, but it's near compared to the moon. The moon is near compared to Pluto. Pluto is near compared to Alpha Centauri. And so on. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 05:46, 22 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Well one English word is Plesiochronous. (I would have transliterated the word above as plesion) This article says it means "near". Graeme Bartlett (talk) 07:30, 22 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Aha! And Plesiosaurus, "near [to] lizard". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 10:17, 22 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

This sinister person no doubt thought so. Clarityfiend (talk) 02:43, 20 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]