Dale-DCX

POV pushing

Please stop your efforts to push your POV onto articles by changing all instances of "American" to "USian" or "from the United States". It is very stilted in normal English and the word "American" already clearly links to the United States. BTW, can you tell me in which country that its people call themselves "American" (not "North American" or "South American") in English besides the United States? DHN (talk) 15:35, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

This has nothing to do with POV, and only to do with what is actually the case. America and American do not solely related to the United States of America. Rather they represent anyone or anything from the American continent(s). Your claim American clearly links to the United States is simply not true. I can indeed tell you many people who are Americans. Canadians, Mexicans, Bolivians, etc. It is not necessary to differentiate between someone being a South or North American, they will of course fall into one of these categories, but they are also part of the greater American continent. Just as it is correct to state a Frenchman is Western European, it is also correct to state he is a European. So stating a Mexican as a North American is correct and so is stating a Mexican as an American.

I am an American, but I am not a American. See, that is confusing. There is no doubt all elements of ambiguous nationalities would be removed if citizens of the United States of America were stated as such, and not as the general American. Dale-DCX (talk) 20:55, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

The word "American" is clearly a wikilink to the "United States" article in the articles you've pushed your POV into. Please ask your fellow Canadians if they consider themselves American. DHN (talk) 21:00, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps you should search Wikipedia for America... Not so clear it relates to the United States exclusively is it? Who said I was Canadian? Though Canadians typically do not state they are Americans as they do not want to be thought of as citizens of the United States of America. Which is yet another issue with mentioning United States citizens as Americans. Far too ambiguous. Regardless, Canadians are Americans, regardless of whether they like to be stated as such or not.

In the sentence "Mark Twain is an American humorist...", the word "American" links to the "United States" article, so I don't see how it can be confusing. However you interpret "American", that sentence is true, and any reasonable person would know which "America" is being referred to. DHN (talk) 21:12, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

Links to, yes. Clear at face-value? Absolutely not. Citing he is from the United States of America removes all doubt. Of course saying Twain is American is 100% true, he is from the American continent. However, if we want to relate solely what country he is from, he is from the United States of America.

In fact, any reasonable person is going to ask what America? Assuming they are smart enough to know there is a difference. Dale-DCX (talk) 21:15, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

As I understand, this is a commonly accepted practice around the wiki, but I've started threads at Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style#American and Wikipedia:Village pump (policy)#American if you're interested. – Luna Santin (talk) 23:01, 17 April 2008 (UTC)