Conchyliatus

Socialist Party (France)

Hi Conchyliatus, I noticed that you reverted my edit to the political position of the Socialist Party's infobox. I was wondering what your reasoning behind the revert was. I was trying to make the page reflect the French page, which says "Gauche à Centre gauche", which means "Left to Centre-left", which we write on Wikipedia as "Centre-left to Left-wing". Could you give me your reasoning? Thanks, Ezhao02 (talk) 02:47, 26 August 2017 (UTC)

Hi there -- I'm not necessarily against "centre-left to left-wing". However, my understanding is that common practice is that consensus reached on the talk page of an English article (or an article in any other language) based on cited and reliable sources takes precedence over simply matching the article in French (or whatever language is deemed most relevant to the subject of an article). The description given on the French page, then, is evidence which is worth raising (more importantly, the sources which the French editors based their description on are evidence worth raising), but it is not in and of itself dispositive. I'd suggest that if you believe centre-left to left is a better description, you read the archived disputes over political position on the english-language talk page, and if you have reputable sources suggesting that description (either the sources used by the French editors or others) which the English talk page has not yet considered you should bring those sources to the attention of the talk page and try to reach consensus there for your change, especially on an issue as prone to back-and-forth as the political position in the info box. My revert was based on the fact that you unilaterally changed the article without new sources and without working through the talk page. I probably should have made that clearer in explanation for the revert and/or spoken to you and/or the talk page about it, and for that I apologize -- was rushing.

My personal instinct is that centre-left is more in-line with political scientists and experts view the party and more consistent with how similar parties are described in English wikipedia. But I'm perfectly willing to be convinced otherwise if you have new sources on the matter; as I say, the revert was more about process than substance. Conchyliatus (talk) 23:28, 27 August 2017 (UTC)Conchyliatus

I see. The French page doesn't seem to have any cited sources, so I won't dispute this. Thanks for the explanation.Ezhao02 (talk) 00:38, 28 August 2017 (UTC)