Talk:House system at the California Institute of Technology
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Hovse?
[edit]Why this weird "Hovse" thing? I never heard of that in my years at Caltech, as student or faculty. It showed up in Wikipedia in 2005, and at Blacker's site by 2006 according to the Wayback Machine. Is this just a weird styling of a few people who aren't that familiar with the Roman alphabet? Are there sources that talk about it or actually use it? Dicklyon (talk) 03:33, 10 November 2021 (UTC)
And gdbg.org is a self-published site from 2008, not something that can be considered WP:RS. Dicklyon (talk) 03:44, 10 November 2021 (UTC)
- It my time at Caltech (mid 2000s), the spelling "Hovse" was popular among undergraduates because the signs on the South Houses use that spelling, in imitation of ancient Roman inscriptions that lack the "U" glyph. And gdbg.org is independent of Caltech as it was written by a former student, and should be considered reliable for these purposes. Antony–22 (talk⁄contribs) 02:09, 12 November 2021 (UTC)
- A personal blog by a former student can hardly be considered either reliable or independent. And I understand the reasoning, a typical silly Caltech undergrad thing. But of course, the Romans also had no lowercase letters, so "Hovse" is nonsense, even if it was popular among undergraduates. That's not the kind of thing that Wikipedia needs to propagate. Dicklyon (talk) 05:52, 12 November 2021 (UTC)
- Regardless of its usage, this is not a case of one letter being substituted for another but a case of how the letter is being rendered. Bulgari is a similar example, as it also uses the old Latin "u" (rendered with a "v") in 100% of its branding and clothing, but that doesn't make the letter a "v", its still a "u". A brief mention can be made to say that the houses are sometimes rendered as hovses, but usage throughout the article should be the actual word, which is houses.Cristiano Tomás (talk) 03:26, 16 November 2021 (UTC)
- I concur with Dicklyon: '"Hovse" is nonsense, even if it was popular among undergraduates. That's not the kind of thing that Wikipedia needs to propagate.' Undergrads call things "frats", too, but WP would refer to them as "fraternities". This is not Slangpedia. — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼 18:57, 24 January 2022 (UTC)
- Concur with SMcandlish in concurring with Diklyon. Mention of undergrad humor - with confirmation from sources - is perfectly acceptable, but anointing their playful nonsense as "fact" is ridiculous. Allreet (talk) 22:25, 10 February 2022 (UTC)
- I concur with Dicklyon: '"Hovse" is nonsense, even if it was popular among undergraduates. That's not the kind of thing that Wikipedia needs to propagate.' Undergrads call things "frats", too, but WP would refer to them as "fraternities". This is not Slangpedia. — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼 18:57, 24 January 2022 (UTC)
- Regardless of its usage, this is not a case of one letter being substituted for another but a case of how the letter is being rendered. Bulgari is a similar example, as it also uses the old Latin "u" (rendered with a "v") in 100% of its branding and clothing, but that doesn't make the letter a "v", its still a "u". A brief mention can be made to say that the houses are sometimes rendered as hovses, but usage throughout the article should be the actual word, which is houses.Cristiano Tomás (talk) 03:26, 16 November 2021 (UTC)
- A personal blog by a former student can hardly be considered either reliable or independent. And I understand the reasoning, a typical silly Caltech undergrad thing. But of course, the Romans also had no lowercase letters, so "Hovse" is nonsense, even if it was popular among undergraduates. That's not the kind of thing that Wikipedia needs to propagate. Dicklyon (talk) 05:52, 12 November 2021 (UTC)
Citation and other issues
[edit]This is listed as a B-class article but according to the criteria: It has reliable sources, and any important or controversial material which is likely to be challenged is cited
, so there is an issue of multiple inline "citation needed" tags and at least one "original research?" question. Aside from a large amount of unsourced material, there are unsourced sections and sub-sections. Maybe a "General references" section would help a C-class article so hopefully, someone can look at this. -- Otr500 (talk) 20:04, 16 January 2022 (UTC)
- I agree, this is clearly a C-class article. Antony–22 (talk⁄contribs) 19:17, 24 January 2022 (UTC)