Talk:Tom Blake (surfer)

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Inexplicable spelling changes and questionable material

Latest comment: 4 years ago2 comments2 people in discussion

I've reverted fourteen instances where a previous editor altered the spelling of words in the original article from U.S. to British/Commonwealth usage, including the text of three direct quotes, and removed what appears to be promotional material added at the same time as the spelling changes.

It is hard to discern any legitimate purpose for the spelling revisions, which included organize to organise, specialty to speciality, aluminum to aluminium, and numerous others. Not only is altering the contents of a direct quote an obvious problem, the edits in general conflict with the Wikipedia Manual of Style, to wit: "An article on a topic that has strong ties to a particular English-speaking nation should use the (formal, not colloquial) English of that nation." Blake was an American athlete who spent his entire career in the U.S., and much of his historic significance derives from his role in disseminating the Hawaiian cultural tradition of surfing to the mainland states. By Wikipedia guidelines, this article clearly should follow American spelling conventions.

The same revision also added a passage announcing the acquisition of one of Blake's books by an Australian library, then repeated information already stated in the previous sentence:

Original article: "...Blake also published what is said to be the first book on surfing, Hawaiian Surfboard, a comprehensive study which treated the history and tradition of the sport, board construction, and surfing technique."
Revision added: "In 2016 the State Library of New South Wales acquired a first edition of the book, which is considered a definitive text on surfing and was the first book devoted to the sport."

The location of one particular copy of Blake's book adds little or nothing to the understanding of his historic significance, nor is it especially notable; similar first editions are located at a number of libraries, and several copies are currently available for purchase online (April 2020). The addition of this announcement, accompanied by the wholesale conversion of the article to Commonwealth-style spelling conventions, suggests a violation of Wikipedia's no-promotion policy.

Hudsonberry (talk) 23:19, 5 April 2020 (UTC)HudsonberryReply

Well done. Carlstak (talk) 14:45, 11 April 2020 (UTC)Reply

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