Talk:Mensa International/Archive 4

message: I just removed the following comment from the page. Can anyone translate it into anything vaguely encyclopedic? Does anyone have a source? samwaltz 11:15, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Is that meant to say "tautology?" I doubt that Mensa would be too concerned about it anyhow: it is not exactly a sign of stupidity. Misodoctakleidist 00:30, 15 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Layered cakes and tortolagies?

message: I deleted the pop culture references section, as per Wikipedia guideline to avoid trivia sections; I don't think these things belong in an encyclopedia article. If another editor feels this was really essential material then you may of course revert it. Or could add a sentence to the article along the lines of Mensa having occasionally been the subject of references in film and television. Wichienmaat 12:01, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Good Call ... that section was nothing but a frequently reverted cruft-magnet, anyway ... "In the 2000 comedy Me, Myself and Irene, the character Charlie Baileygates (played by Jim Carrey) is abandoned by his Mensan wife after she has three children with a man who happens to be president of the Boston Chapter of Mensa." ... yeah, that's real encyclopedic. --68.239.79.97 14:15, 5 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: pop culture

message: I propose Densa be merged into this page, as the organization existed solely for the reason to be a spoof of Mensa. --CA387 21:42, 18 April 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: A great idea, but unfortunately it is likely to be scuppered by the recent request for deletion.  If we merge it, those who voted "keep" will claim that this is deletion by the back door.  (Believe me, I have ample experience of the dirty politics of Wikipedia.)  Therefore, we should probably wait a few weeks before touching Densa.  — Chameleon 00:16, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

text: I suggest it simply be left alone. Let anyone who searches for Densa find it. But don't merge it with Mensa. SunSw0rd 21:18, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

text: Densa has been nominated for deletion once again by The Parsnip!. --CA387 20:56, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

text: Nothing has changed since it was kept; antipodalical parody (neologism alert) is not a sufficient merge reason, in my opinion. -- Avi 03:20, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

text: I just removed the merge notice. It looks like there's a fair consensus against, and it's been up since April. samwaltz 19:20, 15 June 2007 (UTC)

text: The Densa article now notes that it was a 1974 creation by someone publishing puzzles in the Boston Mensa publication. These humorous works were reprinted by other Mensa chapters, and then the meme spread around colleges in the late 1970's. It has survived to the present, with many people writing their own "qualification tests," or creating spurious webpages for the "organization." It is funny to disparage "their organization" because "their website" is only someone's personal webpage or because the reference to it in an article about a Mensa test administration is a joke. Did anyone ever seriously think that low IQ people actually  got together in chapter meetings, paid dues and elected officers? The meme may have started as a non-PC way for  intellectually elite people to poke fun at their inferiors (such as jokes about a Densa member winning a letter in college, and asking someone to read it to him), but the meme has survived as a humorous rejection of the notion of exclusive organizations for high IQ people, or a form of self deprecation by people who do not claim to be intellectually gifted. The meme of Densa does seem to be a notable offshoot of and alter-ego of Mensa, and a merge to put a paragraph or so about it in the Mensa article would not be unreasonable. A great many references, over the past several decades, of varying depth from reliable publications were added back to the Densa article. (As I said in the latest AFD, Densa is an organization for people who think Mensa is a four letter word). Edison 17:09, 29 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Densa merge 

message: The title Mensa International is inappropriate for this article. The title should be simply "Mensa (society)" or — if that is for any reason thought unsatisfactory —  "Mensa (high IQ society)". Mensa as a society is the oldest, but now exists formally as a cluster of separate but co-operating entities. Mensa International is one of those entities, but is not itself the oldest; the original society developed into what is now British Mensa. Therefore although Mensa International is a part of that phenomenon, it is not of itself important enough (outside Mensa as a society) to warrant its own article, and its name is certainly not synonymous with the Mensa society as a worldwide phenomenon. Iph 22:10, 28 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  The title of this article is incorrect 

message: As for whether Mensa is notable enough to have a concise, factual article, surely it is. After all, many notable people are or have been Mensa members. It has around 100,000 members in a hundred countries round the world and active organizations in 40 countries. For some reason, it unfortunately attracts hostilty from certain people but of itself its aims are wholly benign and in a small way it does quite a lot of good. This is not the place to expand at length on that but I do not understand why this article should be a candidate for deletion. I note that there is a heading above on here about Userboxes for Mensa members but if Template Mensa existed it doesn't seem to now. Why? Iph 22:10, 28 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Sorry, but where do you see it to be a candidate for deletion? By the way, there is a Mensa member's userbox, you can see it on my user page. --Saluk 08:45, 30 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Mensa is surely both notable and benign 

message: I bought and printed out the full Sarah Boxer article, which is apparently the only article in existence that seems to mention this "organization", Densa. The article is entirely about Mensa. "Densa" is only given a trivial mention as a joke in the first paragraph. This article is not a legitimate source to establish WP:N and WP:V and I have deleted it. The Parsnip! 15:21, 31 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Densa article fails [[WP:N]] and [[WP:V]] 

message: Does anyone else think a small section that questions the purpose of such societies is warranted? This article sings Mensa's praises, however I am quite sure many among us are like me and have either heard others, or have ourselves, question why such a thing exists, whether it really has any positive impact on anything; whether it's just a collective of indivdiuals stuck on themselves (for lack of a better term).
John 07:56, 16 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: How does your personal opinions and soapboxing on the topic have any relationship to what should be in an aencyclopedia article? I personally think, say, baseball is stupid, question why such a thing even exists, whether it has any positive impact, or whether it's a bunch of clueless fans stuck on their local teams for no logical reason. I can certainly believe all that, but that shouldn't go into the baseball article. It sounds like you are just offended by the concept of people smarter than you and want to attack it, why not go be offended at people who can hit a baseball than you? I mean, seriously, what's up with that? DreamGuy 20:39, 29 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  A little balance maybe...? 

message: Well, nice to see that changing the header to "Mensa Demographics" seems to have worked. I don't think the recent addition about the youngest current member is notable, as she was not the youngest ever upon joining, but am not too horribly concerned. In any case, as long as this new article is circulating, could every please keep their eyes on the section. Cheers, samwaltz 14:40, 22 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Oh, for reference, a few news sites were reporting her to be the youngest ever member; quite a few have since reworded their headers as it became clear that she was the second-youngest.  is currently cached in Google as "Two-year-old 'Matilda' becomes youngest ever Mensa member", but the page header is now  "Two-year-old 'Matilda' becomes youngest ever girl in Mensa". samwaltz 15:13, 22 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Demographics again

message: There appears to be a dispute between User:DreamGuy and User:The Parsnip! over whether this article should have an infobox or not.
DreamGuy is against the inclusion of an infobox:
Because to be an infobox it has to be informative, and this one does nothing but add a huge ugly frame around it and a piece of text already in lead. Infoboxes just for the sake of infoboxes are awful, and the guy putting it back was blind reverting to an old version of the page and wiping out any changes made in the meantime. Until there's actual reason to have an infobox or there's a consensus of people who want it, there's no justification for it whatsoever.
Parsnip! is for the inclusion of an infobox:
I've added the infobox to conform to the style of similar articles. Consistency is a good thing. MANY people may find it informative and helpful. Discuss at talk if you disagree, form consensus.
Reinserted infobox. "I don't like it" is not an adequate reason to delete informational templates that can be expanded on later as more information is found.
I got involved in this dispute by restoring the infobox, thinking at first glance that its removal was vandalism, then re-removing it once I realized that this is an editing dispute. Should this article have an infobox or not? Andrew_pmk | Talk 00:02, 2 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Infobox 

message: Is Mensa active in Spanish-speaking nations?  It would be interesting to know because the femenine adjective "mensa" translates to "stupid" or "foolish".  I wonder how they get past the name without snickering.--Section8pidgeon 10:05, 5 July 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I thought you were a troll after looking at your talk page, you have some warnings there. Sorry if I was mistaken! Mensa does have a branch in Spain, as it does in many countries.  - The Parsnip! 15:46, 7 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Is Mensa active in hispanophone countries?