Talk:Donkey Punch (novel)

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• /Archive 1

Note

Created, with text from lede at en.wikipedia intro. -- Cirt (talk) 00:37, 23 October 2012 (UTC)

Quotability and promotional aspects

I don't think the quotes in the About section display any quotability. These are unremarkably ordinary book review remarks. The links to book reviews in the Further reading section seem superfluous to Wikiquote's purpose and, together with the extent of the article introduction, give the page an appearance of promotional tone. I recommend deleting these sections and trimming the introduction. ~ Ningauble (talk) 16:36, 23 October 2012 (UTC)

Deleting all of them? Why don't we just delete all About sections on this website? That seems silly. C'mon. Let's discuss which specific ones you are so worried about, and why, please. Thank you. -- Cirt (talk) 17:08, 23 October 2012 (UTC)

Yes, actually I would agree that all of the quotes in the About section on this page be deleted. As Ningauble stated, none rise to the level of quotability and are merely book review fluff - which is not really the aim of this project. Only when About quotes rise to a higher level would I recommend keeping them (for pages other than people pages). For example, on the Atlas Shrugged page (by the way, an eminently more important piece of literature than Donkey Punch), you will find the following:

• From almost any page of Atlas Shrugged, a voice can be heard, from painful necessity, commanding: "To a gas chamber — go!"
  • Whittaker Chambers, "Big Sister is Watching You" in National Review (28 December 1957)

• There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.
  • John Rogers, in one of his "Ephemera" posts.
  • Quoted in "I'm Ellsworth Toohey!" by Paul Krugman.

To me, these reflect what is worth keeping in About sections, but not what is here on this page. ~ UDScott (talk) 17:53, 23 October 2012 (UTC)

1. Respectfully disagree. These are quotes from secondary sources.
2. They are not quotes from the book's publisher or publicist or public relations person.
3. They are from book reviews.
4. Their primary purpose is to analyze the book itself, not to "promote" it.
5. It is helpful to give the reader interesting quotes on analysis of the literary work.
6. It doesn't harm anything to leave the quotes in place.
7. Let us trend towards inclusion of more information as opposed to removal of an entire subsection.

Thank you, -- Cirt (talk) 19:34, 23 October 2012 (UTC)

I still don't see the purpose. Regardless of whether or not the sources are secondary or are promotional in nature, our aim is to provide quotable quotes, not to provide a compendium of what reviewers think about a work, especially if said quotes are not pithy or quotable on their own. Perhaps such review quotes might make more sense on WP, but I don't see their value here. ~ UDScott (talk) 20:27, 23 October 2012 (UTC)

They are quotable. -- Cirt (talk) 20:27, 23 October 2012 (UTC)

Do you mean "quotable" on the sense of the Wikiquote:Quotability guideline, or "quotable" in the sense of being suitable for dust jacket copy?

To be clear, I did not say the quoted sources are themselves promotional, but that they are unremarkably ordinary. What I did say is that linking to bunches of reviews gives the page an appearance of promotional tone. On your 7th point, it is not Wikiquote's purpose to collect information about things, it is a collection of notable quotations. ~ Ningauble (talk) 17:12, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

Yes, thank you, the quotes satisfy Wikiquote:Quotability. -- Cirt (talk) 17:23, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

2nd attempt at compromise

2nd attempt at compromise

I've gone ahead and trimmed down the size of the lede intro significantly, please see diff and diff. Hopefully this will be seen as satisfactory. Thank you, -- Cirt (talk) 18:05, 27 October 2012 (UTC)