This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the 2015 Mina stampede article. This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Arab world, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the Arab world on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Arab worldWikipedia:WikiProject Arab worldTemplate:WikiProject Arab worldArab world articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Death, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Death on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.DeathWikipedia:WikiProject DeathTemplate:WikiProject DeathDeath articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Disaster management, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Disaster management on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Disaster managementWikipedia:WikiProject Disaster managementTemplate:WikiProject Disaster managementDisaster management articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Islam, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Islam-related articles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.IslamWikipedia:WikiProject IslamTemplate:WikiProject IslamIslam-related articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Saudi Arabia, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of articles related to Saudi Arabia on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Saudi ArabiaWikipedia:WikiProject Saudi ArabiaTemplate:WikiProject Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia articles
Latest comment: 1 year ago4 comments3 people in discussion
I'm sure this has been discussed before but shouldn't the title of this page be "2015 Mina Crowd Crush" or "2015 Mina Crowd Crush / Stampede" / "2015 Mina Crowd Crush and Stampede"
Agreed. If there is any argument why the probable misnomer should be retained (e.g. evidence that it *was* an actual "stampede" and not a typical crowd crush), then please summarize it. I don't see evidence in the article itself. It's described as an intersection and density problem. If no arguments/evidence can be provided after some time, then someone should just boldly improve the title. There are also currently 141 casual instances of the word "stampede" in the article, depicting people like wild animals rather than the emphasis being on responsible crowd management where it should probably be. Consider a global search & replace with the word 'crush' or something similar (but not inside quotes obviously). DKEdwards (talk) 17:53, 22 December 2022 (UTC)Reply
This was discussed before, in late 2015 and 2016. I advocated strongly to eliminate the use of the word "stampede" in the title for the same reasons, but after a long and thoroughly debated process, with strong opinions on both sides, no consensus was reached; therefore, the closer determined the article should remain as it was, and that since the source material used the word, WP should also use the word. I think that's dead wrong, but an awful lot of people were involved in that decision. A section in the article discusses the issue, which is a small concession.
One additional item to consider, if you think we should reopen this highly divisive issue, is the extremely racist nature of WP's historical use of the word "stampede." (Racist in effect, not in intent.) I conducted an in-depth analysis using statistical methods, and I found:
1) not one single predominately white event was called a stampede,
2) 73% of predominately non-white events were called stampedes,
3) 5% of events in the US and Europe were called stampedes (in the US, these were predominately non-white events), and
4) 74% of events that happened elsewhere were called stampedes.
This analysis included the 92 articles that were listed on the page List of human stampedes as of October 9, 2015. (Note that list itself referred to stampedes, though today it is titled "List of fatal crowd crushes, and it has obviously grown since my analysis. I think opinions are changing.) I do not suggest that WP or any editors had racist intentions, and some of the articles included in my analysis have since been modified to use different terminology. The reason for this racial bias appears to be systemic racism in the reporting of these events in the English language media, and I think that's an appalling excuse for us to continue the practice here on WP.
I think an argument can be made now, after the explosion of the BLM movement around the world, that society has changed in important ways concerning race relations, and it might be justified to take this up again. Dcs002 (talk) 00:20, 17 January 2023 (UTC)Reply
BTW, I think this is where the discussion started.
Here is the RfC discussion in WP Words to watch. It's long, and I kinda dominated it, but I wasn't alone. I think people were generally thoughtful, and the opposing side had some very good points. I strongly disagree with them, but I cannot dismiss them. Dcs002 (talk) 02:26, 17 January 2023 (UTC)Reply