User talk:Martin Hogbin/MWB

James Clark Maxwell article

There is a dispute concerning Maxwell's nationality that has spiraled out of control.

Initially it was a simple content dispute with roughly similar numbers of editors on each side and with both sides citing sources to make their point. One group of editors wanted to state Maxwell's nationality as 'Scottish' and the other as 'British'. Neither side was able to convince the other.

I then proposed the neutral compromise that we should not state Maxwell's nationality in the infobox at all until agreement could be reached. This solution was flatly refused by one side and I am now being threatened with a topic ban just for proposing it.

This dispute is not about how Maxwell is described, how he self-identified, his ethnicity, or his cultural background. Those are complex issues to be decided by consensus on a case-by-case basis. The dispute is simply about what is put in the 'nationality' field of the infobox.

It would seem that there have been similar arguments at Logie Baird and Alexander Fleming with reports of topic bans for those not supporting 'Scottish'.