Talk:libtard

Libertarians

Correcting this entry. There are no references showing the words use to describe libertarians. This is exclusively used in reference people on the political left. 199.83.196.145

You deleted quotations showing the term used that way when you deleted that definition. More in Citations:libtard. Entry restored. ~ Röbin Liönheart (talk) 22:25, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

This entry is incorrect

the individual 199.83.196.145 that secondarily edited the entry is correct. Historically, the term 'libtard' is a perjorative to describe an unthinking, dogmatic individual of liberal political leaning - combining "liberal" and "retard", as shown in Definition #2. To use message-board entries as "citations" is intellectually deceitful. At worst, it should be moved from the primary definition to secondary/tertiary; at best, it should be removed altogether, as it is inaccurate, and violates the spirit of wikipedia and open-source knowledge sharing. Srigita (talk) 18:29, 22 July 2014 (UTC)

Wiktionary has different policies than Wikipedia because we are dictionary rather than an encyclopedia. Original research is disallowed on Wikipedia, but it's how we build entries here on Wiktionary. We aim to gather examples of terms being used in books, magazines, etc. and parse our own definitions from them, instead of just looking at existing dictionaries and repeating what they say. Wiktionary has its own guidelines on what types of sources are acceptable for use as citations (see Wiktionary:Criteria for inclusion). Usenet postings are considered acceptable for our purposes.

A minimum of three CFI-compliant citations showing a term being used in a specific way are needed for said term to be considered worthy of inclusion. That requirement has been satisfied here.

I don't know why the "libertarian" sense is listed before the "liberal" sense in the entry. I'm guessing it's because the earliest citation we have for the "libertarian" sense is from 2006, whereas the earliest citation for the "liberal" sense is from 2009. Listing senses in descending order based on earliest documented use is more objective than trying to make a subjective judgment about which sense is more well-known or popular. Of course, if an earlier citation for the "liberal" sense were found, that would justify moving this sense above the "libertarian" sense. -Cloudcuckoolander (talk) 04:04, 23 July 2014 (UTC)

If we order definitions by age of first use, we'd move a lot of obsolete and archaic definitions to the fore. I would prefer those to be last and sort by commonality of usage (while weighing other considerations like grouping related definitions).

So I've gone ahead and moved the "liberal" sense first. If that should also reduce vandalism of this entry, so much the better. ~ Röbin Liönheart (talk) 15:35, 23 July 2014 (UTC)

Except we aren't dealing with an obsolete or archaic definition. We're dealing with a contemporary definition that people may still except to encounter in the wild. It may not be as popular as the "liberal" definition, but the evidence we have suggests that it predates it. I can see making a deliberate editorial decision to give lesser weight to a term used by a limited number of people (say, gaming slang or boating jargon) than a term used generally. But since these are both contemporary insults employed in mainstream political discourse, I think that, for our purposes, they should be treated as being on equal footing. Thus we need an objective criterion by which to decide which definition should be listed first, and earliest documented use seems to fit the bill. The fact that it personally displeases some people to have the "Libertarian" definition listed first doesn't strike me as sufficient justification to re-order the definitions in the entry. If someone wants to see the sections re-ordered, they should provide a CFI-compliant cite of the "liberal" sense which predates the earliest cite for the "libertarian" sense. -Cloudcuckoolander (talk) 21:07, 23 July 2014 (UTC)