Talk:Northwestern Syria clashes (December 2022–present)

Clashes subsided

I'd say it's safe to say that the intensity of clashed on the Idlib front has returned to it's pre-December 2022 state. I'm sure the recent earthquake has had alot to do with this but I digress, I think we should say this phase of clashes has come to an end unless anything large occurs in the next day or so. ThePaganUK (talk) 14:57, 10 March 2023 (UTC)

State of the article

@ThePaganUK: First of all let me start by saying thank you for your contributions to the article. With regards to the clashes which have resulted in a single combatant being killed, I don't think they are notable enough to be included in the article. Especially now that the article is quite large in size. With regards to the state of the clashes, they are still described as ongoing by SOHR and could go on for the foreseeable future, the current low intensity is possibly due to the earthquake. You don't have to feel compelled to add each and every single clash in the article, in fact it might be appropriate to remove most of the clashes from the article except large ones with 5+ killed. Ecrusized (talk) 10:01, 13 March 2023 (UTC)

Okay. I agree with this summary. I do suspect the earthquake has caused quite a stir in that part of the country. I'm happy to proceed as you've mentioned. Thank you for your reply!. ThePaganUK (talk) 18:27, 13 March 2023 (UTC)

"We Will Not Reconcile" listed at Redirects for discussion

The redirect We Will Not Reconcile has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2023 April 4 § We Will Not Reconcile until a consensus is reached. _signed, Rosguill ^talk 04:44, 4 April 2023 (UTC)

Need more/better sources

Currently, this entire article is sourced to SOHR, which is at best a week source. We need to diversify, and preferably use non-breaking news pieces (see WP:Breaking news sources and reliable sources. BobFromBrockley (talk) 12:21, 11 September 2023 (UTC)

@BobFromBrockley: The vast majority of Syrian civil war articles are almost entirely composed of SOHR, since there isn't any other semi-independent source reporting them besides the unreliable pro-government media like al-Mastar and pro-Russian government news like RT. Ecrusized (talk) 16:35, 11 September 2023 (UTC)

Thanks Ecrusized. I agree that it is a better source than al-Masdar or Russian media, but still poor. But I would question whether something is particularly noteworthy if SOHR is the only source. There are certainly other Syria articles that are overly reliant on it, but I don't think I've seen one as reliant as this one. BobFromBrockley (talk) 21:02, 11 September 2023 (UTC)

@Bobfrombrockley: I think the article is too large and it goes into too many unnecessary details by citing every single casualty. As a brief summary however, it is important as the clashes mark several milestones. 1) First exchange of territory between the rebels and government since 2020. And 2) Killing of the most senior Russian official in Syria since 2016. The article could be cut down by about 75% in size by removing most of the timeline section, which is where SOHR is used entirely as a source for. Ecrusized (talk) 11:21, 12 September 2023 (UTC)

I hate to see editors' work thrown away, but I tend to agree. I might try to find the time to look at what more robust sources find noteworthy and use that to focus the article, but unlikely to do that soon. BobFromBrockley (talk) 11:46, 12 September 2023 (UTC)

Suggestion: merge article into Timeline of the Syrian civil war

This article was created in December 2022 to document what has turned out to be a quite minor and insignificant escalation of the usual clashes along the Idlib line.

It has since evolved into a catch-all page for said usual clashes along the Idlib line, and as this article approaches its first birthday, it bears a strong resemblance to the more recent sections of the Timeline of the Syrian civil war.

The "Northwestern Syria clashes (December 2022-present)" are not a notable or distinct event in and of themselves. The lede mentions "a series of intensified clashes," but that doesn't properly characterize the events of the past eleven months. The start date here is rather arbitrary; a more reasonable timeframe would be "Northwestern Syria clashes (March 2020-present)," because all the fighting since then bears similar, repetitive characteristics, and most importantly a fixed front line.

Because of what this page has become, I believe the information here would be best suited if it were integrated into the Syrian civil war timeline and this article deleted. SaintPaulOfTarsus (talk) 08:19, 11 November 2023 (UTC)