Talk:Great Lakes#Merge proposal

Whenever the Chart extension gets deployed to English Wikipedia, please add {{#chart:Great Lakes Ice Cover.chart}} to the "Ice cover" section. Nosferattus (talk) 20:13, 5 April 2025 (UTC)

"[https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2024GL110777 Revealing the Cape Verde Hotspot Track Across the Great Lakes]" Secondary sources available. Far enough along to mention? Mapsax (talk) 03:17, 11 April 2025 (UTC)

A user, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/2A00:23C8:D312:3F01:7D3A:9E2A:E15A:C2DD 2A00:23C8:D312:3F01:7D3A:9E2A:E15A:C2DD] is wanting to make a couple changes to the article and is insisting. Others disagree with the changes. We are not supposed to edit war about this stuff or argue back-and-forth in edit summaries; instead per WP:BRD the editor wanting to make the change should open a thread and discuss it. I have done this, and reverted the changes for the present. I would also remind editors that insulting edit summaries are not good form.

The changes that User:2A00:23C8:D312:3F01:7D3A:9E2A:E15A:C2DD wanted to make are:

• Change the opening sentence from "The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of..." to just "The Great Lakes are a series of..."

• Remove most of the Etymology section, on the grounds that while the history of how the term "Great Lakes" came to be the common name is appropriate in this article, etymologies of the individual lake names don't belong.

I don't really agree with these changes. As to the first, the Great Lakes of Africa are a thing, also a set of large and important lakes with the same name. It is true that Americans simply use the term "Great Lakes", but this is not universal outside of America, depending on the context. I suppose that people in Africa often use just "Great Lakes" to refer to their big lakes. And we want to be careful not to be too American-centric here.

It is possible that "Great Lakes" should be a disambiguation page. I doubt it, but maybe. But that's a different discussion.

As to the second, I would want more discussion about how removing the material will, on net, improve readers' experience. Many readers will skip the Etymology section I am sure, but for those that don't, the etyomologies of the individual lake names are probably of benefit to many readers.

The burden is on User:2A00:23C8:D312:3F01:7D3A:9E2A:E15A:C2DD to make a compelling argument about why the changes are worthwhile. Arguments should center on how to best serve the reader, or on policies and rules, rather than on anyone's personal preferences. Herostratus (talk) 04:07, 10 May 2025 (UTC)

:It is astonishingly arrogant of you to entirely ignore the posts I made to the talk page while reverting my edit with a demand that I "take it to the talk page". 2A00:23C8:D312:3F01:C2FD:F717:932B:8F1B (talk) 08:32, 10 May 2025 (UTC)

The article should probably mention the Battle of Lake Erie in the History section.

Not as crucial but still notable, there could be a mention of the United States Geological Survey's [https://www.usgs.gov/centers/great-lakes-science-center Great Lakes Science Center] research facility (not to be confused with the museum of the same name). Mapsax (talk) 00:30, 15 June 2025 (UTC)