Talk:Alan Watts

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Alan Watts is a former featured article candidate. Please view the links under Article milestones below to see why the nomination was archived. For older candidates, please check the archive.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
May 10, 2005	Featured article candidate	Not promoted

What is Brookside?

The text says "Watts, an only child, grew up playing at Brookside". There is no indication of what "Brookside" is. Rodeored (talk) 16:00, 13 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Ethnicity

WP:ETHNICITY is really quite clear. Unless he is notable for things he did as a British citizen before becoming an American, we don't use the first sentence of the lead to identify his country of birth. It doesn't matter if he has dual citizenship. He is notable for his lectures and books written while in the US. In the case of, say Arnold Schwarzenegger we say he was "Austrian and American" because he was a notable Austrian actor before moving to the US. But we don't say Austrian-American, and we don't say "Austrian born". Thems the rules. I didn't make them.DolyaIskrina (talk) 20:07, 7 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

OK, happy to discuss. Let's find a way to come to some consensus on this. But first: in your last edit you restored the word "English" in the short description. That was not your intention, was it? Moving on, yes I'd say he certainly was notable for things he did as a British citizen before becoming an American citizen. His British education and his subsequent activities as a British citizen — such as his participation in the World Congress of Faiths in London, and his early publications — are an important part of his notability. If you want to word this as "British and American" I'd certainly agree with that, and I do believe this belongs in the first sentence of the lead. Jōkepedia (talk) 20:54, 7 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I am okay with "British and American" in a subsequent sentence. I'm pretty sure that, as long as it's not in the first sentence, it's even okay to say "British-born". DolyaIskrina (talk) 21:02, 7 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you. Now, as you pointed out, Schwarzenegger is "Austrian and American" enough to have that in the first sentence of his article. I'd say Watts, and his British accent on the radio, were certainly "British and American" enough as well. Wouldn't it be best to follow that example? Someone's likely to wordsmith it back into the first sentence eventually without reading this discussion anyway. Jōkepedia (talk) 21:21, 7 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think it should be in the first sentence. DolyaIskrina (talk) 04:53, 9 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It doesn't matter if he has dual citizenship. I think it does, and I'm not sure your certainty that it does not is warranted. "British-American", to me, is a nationality, not an 'ethnicity'. Marcus Markup (talk) 00:22, 8 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

"The opening paragraph should usually provide context for that which made the person notable. In most modern-day cases, this will be the country, region, or territory where the person is currently a national or permanent resident" DolyaIskrina (talk) 04:52, 9 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Article quality

This is a long and rambling article, with lots of uncited or poorly cited opinions, and some enormous quotes. Would there be any interest in rewriting it to look more like a Wikipedia article and less like an essay? John (talk) 19:12, 30 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]