Patent nonsense (to be carefully distinguished from
brilliant prose or
PrivateNonsense), particularly on a wiki, falls into a just few general categories:
- Literal nonsense, i.e., text that has no assignable meaning at all. This tends to be created after the consumption of too much adult beverage, for example, or under the influence of immaturity and/or stupidity. (The writings of James Joyce being the obvious exception.)
- Stuff that, while apparently meaningful after a fashion, is so completely and irremediably confused that no intelligent person can be expected to try to make heads or tails of it. (The writings of James Joyce being the obvious exception.)
This should be sent to
bad jokes and other deleted nonsense.
The following, while often regrettable, is not patent nonsense, and therefore – according to a proposed rule on the Wikipedia policy page– should not for that reason be deleted.
But here are some suggestions for improvement:
- Really badly-written stuff. (So correct it.)
- Partisan screed. (Make it hedged or add qualifications in order to make it less biased.)
- Religious excogitations. (Make it factual. Yes, there are ways of doing this; e.g. add phrases like "Followers of X hold that...")
- Mere opinion masquerading as fact. (Remove it to an appropriately-named page, or reword in order to make it fact-stating.)
- Incompetent and/or immature stuff. (Well, it's not nonsense, but perhaps it does deserve to be greatly improved. So improve it.)
- Flame bait entries. (Don't take the bait; instead, replace it with something that actually adds to the quality of the Wikipedia.)
See also
patent.