Talk:The Ass and his Masters

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lead sentence edit

Latest comment: 4 months ago5 comments2 people in discussion

@Sweetpool50 Can you explain why my edits were "unnecessary and disruptive"? Currently the lead sentence is: The Ass (sometimes 'donkey') and his Masters is a fable that has also gone by the alternative titles The ass and the gardener and Jupiter and the ass. I found that this sentence, particularly the alternative names for the fable, doesn't read that well. I rewrote the sentence to: The Ass and his Masters, also known as the Donkey and his Masters, the ass and the gardener, and Jupiter and the ass, is a fable. This sentence has the information more organized while keeping the same information. This is similar to the other lead sentences in articles that have alternative names like Spanish flu & Barbenheimer. I don't see how my edits are unnecessary and disruptive. Endof talk 22:20, 8 January 2024 (UTC)Reply

The objection above is a personal response and comes under WP:AINT. The lead sentence is OK by UK usage and lists the contents of the article with the priorities 'Identificatory title + genre (fable) + other titles', then in the second sentence locates the fable historically. The preference of multiple titles followed by "is a fable" is weak since that information comes too long after the list of alternatives and confuses the reader. In addition, the following sentence "Included among Aesop's Fables" then becomes inelegantly repetitious and on a par with repetition of "this sentence" by the objecting editor. Sweetpool50 (talk) 09:13, 9 January 2024 (UTC)Reply

How would you feel about the following comprise then, where the alternate names are in a footnote and combines the sentences:

The Ass and his Masters^[a] is one of Aesop's Fables, numbered 179 in the Perry Index. Endof talk 19:23, 9 January 2024 (UTC)Reply

Per MOS:LEAD, the lead section is meant to be a simple introduction to and summing up of the article that follows. A footnote would therefore be inappropriate and needlessly complicating. What bothers me is that no publication with the title "The Ass and the Gardener" is mentioned in the article and, what's more, there are two separate fables with that title, one being a completely different tale from Bidpai. What is really needed is some disambiguating explanation in the article itself to justify the listing in the lead. Sweetpool50 (talk) 20:27, 9 January 2024 (UTC)Reply

The lead titles now reflect the main article. Sweetpool50 (talk) 00:29, 10 January 2024 (UTC)Reply

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