Portal talk:Western Sahara

message: Hi - I'd just like to compliment you on the quality of the Western Sahara portal you established today.  It is always an excellent surprise to see portals of the quality of yours being added to the namespace, as opposed to the generally sub-standard portal we usually get.  If this is maintained then a WP:FPORT nomination may well be in the wings...  Deano (Talk) 15:10, 1 January 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Western Sahara portal 

message: Western Sahara is a territory disputed between Morocco and Polisario, each side has its own arguments which they think suffiscient, the UN is trying now to resolve the problem through a referundum. First of all, the problem is about neutrality of WP, the flag shown in this section is the flag used by one party of the conflict (polisario) and refused by the other (Morocco) and not recognized by the UN (the mediator in this conflict). There was an edit conflict about the infobox of Western Sahara page between me in one side and you and Arre in the other, a survey was necessary and the results are here and here. You see that the "no flags" option seems to be the least controversial solution, the "two flags" option was the second choice, displaying only one flag was the worst solution. Let's comply with WP principles of neutrality. You have to accept other side's opinions, stop your blind war edit. Daryou 18:23, 3 January 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I fully agree with you Daryou, this is just ridiculously POV. It's aking to propaganda and I feel sorry this made its way on wikipedia. I currently can't spend much time scouting for inaccurate information and POV edits, but a quick browsing and a few searches show me that it's full of misinformation and omissions of very relevant facts. Very little (if any) is said about Algeria's fundamental role and interests in this whole issue. I can't find anything about the gradual defection of most of Polisario's historical leadership through political settlements. Things that are far from being consensual are presented as such. That no one reckonized Morocco's annexion is plain misinformation for example, most of the Arab League members did (though at least with the probable exception of Algeria), quite a few other African nations did, and there are certainly many others (I'd need to investigate to give an exhaustive list). --Yobaranut 04:42, 15 January 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Koavf pushing Polisario's POV again and again!

message: Architecture of Africa is currently nominated on Wikipedia:Article Improvement Drive. Come to this page and support it with your vote. Help us improve this article to featured status.--Fenice 08:46, 17 January 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: [[Wikipedia:Article Improvement Drive]]

message: The portal is too POV. (see comments on Wikipedia:Featured portal candidates/Portal:Western Sahara) I therefore deleted 3 POV sections.S710 07:58, 18 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: POV page

message: Any discussion about Western Sahara quickly degenerates into a near-hysterical shouting match between those who believe it should be part of Morocco and those that support Sahrawi independence under the leadership of the Polisario, and unfortunatley this has happened here on Wikipedia. The material on Western Sahara needs to recognise that there are conflicting claims to the territory, and that the territory remains disputed and is effectively partitioned. Most of the territory is under Moroccan control, and the Moroccan flag may presumably be seen widely in this zone, which is referred to by the Polisario and many Sahrawi, but not by Morocco or Moroccans, as the "Occupied Territories". However, there is a sizeable (but much smaller) portion of Western Sahara that is controlled by the Polisario, and in this zone the Polisario flag is seen frequently.
The flag used by the Polisario is the flag of the self-proclaimed SADR, which is recognised by a number of developing countries and most African nations (the figures need to be checked and kept updated). I'm not sure how many countries explicitly recognise Morocco as the legitimate authority in Western Sahara (again check and update), but I believe the numbers who recognise Morocco's jurisdiction and the numbers that recognise the Polisario's authority are comparable. Many other countries do not have an official position, although may effectively support one side or the other. Some of the comments here are trying to push a POV by comparing recognition of one side's position with non-recognition - if we are interested in this sort of comparison the figures that should be compared are countries explicitly recognising the Polisario position with those explicitly recognising the Moroccan position. 
The SADR and the territory of Western Sahara are equivalent as far as the Polisario and those countries who recognise their sovereignty are concerned. To the UN, who remain officially neutral, and to any actors who do not recognise Polisario authority, the SADR and Western Sahara are not equivalent. Surely this can be stated firmly and without any danger of bias towards one side or another. 
Both sides in the conflict accuse each other of human rights abuses and general bad behaviour. Some of these accusations have a basis and some (many) do not. The best approach here is to list the _accusations_ and point to reports from independent bodies on the human rights situation. 
This really shouldn't be a difficult section to write - it's a pity that it appears to have been infiltrated by people who are blatantly partisan. We all have our views on the conflict, and I have mine, but if we are to present accurate information we have to distance ourselves from our own views. If we do not, it will be obvious that a lot of the material is propaganda and counter-propaganda, and the Western Sahara material will not be trusted. Pushing a POV is counterproductive.
We have to forget about who are the good guys and who are the bad guys and be as objective as possible, acknowledging that there are conflicting points of view. 
A little more emotional distance - please!
Something that I discovered very recently that might be of interest is that the Moroccan wall or berm is not restricted to within the territory of Western Sahara, but actually extends into Mauritania, contrary to how it is depicted on maps, including the MINURSO map. You can see it on Google Earth.
Nickbrooks 18:56, 7 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Multiple views need to be acknowledged without bias 

message: Separate sections I've restored the deleted sections to this portal, but not their content. If you have a problem with a POV issue in a given section, the talk page of that section is the most appropriate place for it. If you have a POV problem with the Portal per se, here is the best place to discuss it. I'm assuming the latter is not the case. -Justin (koavf)·T·C·M 14:07, 6 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  POV issues 

message: I think that if we all helped out in western sahara to make things better for the people in western sahara. We could give them money if you really think about it when you say that you have no money and that you only have a couple of dollars they dont even have that i mean we cant even imagine how the poor people in western sahara live out there but yet we still dont care i mean look how we livin we have it good when out in western sahara they have boms out there everyday and policemen that are way worser than ours so all im sayin is that there is a lot of people in western sahara that need some help and so all we have to do is care more and stop thinkin abot our selfs because they go through a lot more stuff than we do.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.74.66.149 (talk) 05:07, 11 April 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  helping out the people in western sahara 

message: Hi,
This is rather "Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic Portal" than "Western Sahara Portal".
The portal is not about the territory but related to the POV of one of the two belligerents, the POLISARIO.
The Portal, by its style and content is far from neutrality.
Thus the portal should definitely renamed to "SADR Portal" or "POLISARIO Portal"
Wimmiden (talk) 12:50, 28 September 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: I am about to undo this move, partly because the related article is titled "Western Sahara", but mainly because the move has broken the formatting of the portal completely. If you think the move is not contentious, please follow the instructions at Wikipedia:Moving a page#Moving a portal to get admin help with the move. -- John of Reading (talk) 10:27, 13 October 2015 (UTC)

text: Same again! -- John of Reading (talk) 06:37, 11 February 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  The Portal should be renamed 

message: WikiProject Portals is back!
The project was rebooted and completely overhauled on April 17th, 2018. Its goals are to revitalize the entire portal system, make building and maintaining portals easier, support the ongoing improvement of portals and the editors dedicated to this, and design the portals of the future.
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thread_title:  Notice from the [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals|Portals WikiProject]] 

message: This portal has been updated and expanded in 2019. Additional articles for the portal can be considered from those available in the table listed below. North America1000 06:02, 22 September 2019 (UTC)
replies: text: Even tho you are a continent thousands of miles away, you have done good work on this portal. Thank you and . ―Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 06:20, 22 September 2019 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks . I specialize in geographic/historical country topics, those regarding food and drink, as well as others. North America1000 06:27, 22 September 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Portal expanded