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John Playfair

John Playfair FRSE, FRS (10 March 1748 – 20 July 1819) was a Church of Scotland minister, remembered as a scientist and mathematician, and a professor of natural philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. He is best known for his book Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth (1802), which summarised the work of James Hutton. It was through this book that Hutton's principle of uniformitarianism, later taken up by Charles Lyell, first reached a wide audience. Playfair's textbook Elements of Geometry made a brief expression of Euclid's parallel postulate known now as Playfair's axiom.

In 1783 he was a co-founder of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He served as General Secretary to the society 1798–1819.

Life
Born at Benvie, slightly west of Dundee to Margaret Young (1719/20 – 1805) and Reverend James Playfair (died 1772), the kirk minister of Liff and Benvie.

Playfair was educated at home until the age of 14, when he entered the University of St Andrews to study divinity. He also did further studies at Edinburgh University. In 1766, when only 18, he was a candidate for the chair of mathematics in Marischal College (now part of the University of Aberdeen), and, although he was unsuccessful, his claims were admitted to be high.

Six years later (1772) he applied for the chair of natural philosophy (physics) at St Andrews University, but again without success. In 1773 he was licensed to preach by the Church of Scotland and was offered the united parishes of Liff and his home parish of Benvie (made vacant by the death of his father). However, Playfair chose to continue his studies in mathematics and physics, and in 1782 he resigned his charge to become the tutor of Adam Ferguson. By this arrangement Playfair regularly visited Edinburgh and went on to cultivate the literary and scientific society for which the city was at that time specially distinguished. In particular, he attended the natural history course of John Walker. Through Nevil Maskelyne, whose acquaintance he had first made in the course of the celebrated Schiehallion experiments in 1774, he also gained access to the scientific circles of London. In 1785 when Dugald Stewart succeeded Ferguson in the University of Edinburgh Chair of Moral Philosophy, Playfair succeeded the former to become the chair of mathematics.

In 1795 Playfair published an alternative, more stringent formulation of Euclid's parallel postulate, which is now called Playfair's axiom. Although the axiom bears Playfair's name, he did not create it, but credited others, in particular William Ludlam with its prior use.

In 1802 Playfair published his celebrated volume entitled Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth. The influence exerted by James Hutton on the development of geology is thought to be largely due to its publication. In 1805 Playfair exchanged the Chair of Mathematics for that of natural philosophy in succession to John Robison, whom also he succeeded as general secretary to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He took a prominent part, on the liberal side, in the ecclesiastical controversy that arose in connection with Sir John Leslie's appointment to the post he had vacated, and published a satirical letter (1806).

He moved from 6 Buccleuch Place to a new house at 2 Albany Street (then called Albany Row) in 1807.

Playfair was an opponent of Gottfried Leibniz's vis viva principle, an early version of the conservation of energy. In 1808, he launched an attack on John Smeaton and William Hyde Wollaston's work championing the theory. In 1808 he also published a review of Laplace's Traité de Mécanique Celeste.

He died at 2 Albany Street on 20 July 1819. He is buried nearby in Old Calton Burial Ground (a secular burial ground).

Family
Playfair's brothers were architect James Playfair, solicitor Robert Playfair and engineer William Playfair. His nephew, William Henry Playfair (1790–1857) was an eminent architect in Scotland.

In later life he admired and proposed to the wealthy widow Jane Apreece. She turned him down and married Sir Humphry Davy.

He died of strangury on 20 July 1819, and, although an eminent man, was buried in an unmarked grave in Old Calton Burial Ground, on Waterloo Place in Edinburgh. His, and his brother, James's graves were marked by a plaque unveiled in 2011 following a local campaign. The monument to his memory by William Henry Playfair, on Calton Hill, is visible from the spot.

Honours

 * Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
 * Fellow of the Royal Society of London, 1807
 * Craters on Mars and the Moon were named in his honour.
 * The mineral playfairite was named in his honour.

Critical bibliography
A four-volume collected edition of Playfair's works, with a memoir by James G. Playfair, appeared at Edinburgh in 1822.

His writings include a number of essays contributed to the Edinburgh Review from 1804 onwards, various papers in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (including his earliest publication, "On the Arithmetic of Impossible Quantities", 1779, and an "Account of the Lithological Survey of Schehallion", 1811) and in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh ("On the Causes which Affect the Accuracy of Barometrical Measurements" and others), the articles "Aepinus" and "Physical Astronomy", and a "Dissertation on the Progress of Mathematical and Physical Science since the Revival of Learning in Europe" in the Encyclopædia Britannica (Supplement to fourth, fifth and sixth editions). He also took an interest in Indian astronomy and compared them with traditional and ancient astronomy from Egypt and Greece. He also examined Indian concepts in trigonometry.

His Elements of Geometry first appeared in 1795 and has passed through many editions; his Outlines of Natural Philosophy (2 vols., 1812–1816) consist of the propositions and formulae which were the basis of his class lectures. Playfair's contributions to pure mathematics were not considerable, his papers "On the Arithmetic of Impossible Quantities" and "On the Causes which Affect the Accuracy of Barometrical Measurements", and his Elements of Geometry, all already referred to, being the most important. His lives of Matthew Stewart, Hutton, and Robison, many of his reviews, and above all his "Dissertation" are of the utmost value.

title: John Playfair


text:
User:Anders Feder

/Weaknesses of Wikipedia process /Burdenshifting /Wikipedia is not a sausage /Neutrality does not mean relativism /ImproveIslamArticles

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: User:Anders Feder


text:
User talk:Anders Feder

Hello and Welcome! I hope you like the place. --mav

Atmosphere of Mars
Just a quick note of appreciation on you work at Atmosphere of Mars. Cheers, BatteryIncluded (talk) 23:15, 5 August 2011 (UTC)

DYK for OPERA neutrino anomaly
Thanks from me Victuallers (talk) 12:03, 19 October 2011 (UTC)

Good Article
Hey, I nominated the Aftermath for a good article, and there are some suggestions on how to improve it to be so. I have done some of them, such as the references and clarification, but the main thing I think we need is images. If you want to look over the criteria and see what I have already done, the list is here. Thanks for all your work on this! Jeancey (talk) 19:26, 26 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks, bro. Yes, I also miss images, but I couldn't come up with a good source for related ones with compatible licensing.--Anders Feder (talk) 22:19, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

Hi Anders Feder, could you address the remaining issues with regards to the GA article nomination, so that we can come to end with the review? Thanks and best regards, JCAla (talk) 08:06, 31 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Sure.--Anders Feder (talk) 20:04, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

GA review - one more week
Ok, guys, please address the remaining issues with regards to the article, otherwise I won't be able to give it the GA status which would be a pity since it is an article with potential. The overlinking needs to be addressed or issue solved. I personally don't think it is overlinked, but you should solve the issue. Please find some more illustrations and address the remaining points with regards to broad coverage. Thanks. JCAla (talk) 09:56, 15 February 2012 (UTC)
 * I've been having trouble finding the motivation, but I will get around to it ASAP. Thanks for bearing with the process :) --Anders Feder (talk) 10:10, 15 February 2012 (UTC)

The Happy Iranian
Hello Anders Feder,

I just came across the happy iranian section on one of your pages which was such an accurate description to the sort of thing I have seen on some Wikipedia pages. Could I keep a version on one of my subpages? I will offcourse attribute it to yourself. I understand if you say no. Regards. Mbcap (talk) 19:29, 15 February 2015 (UTC)
 * I would be honored if you do.--Anders Feder (talk) 19:31, 15 February 2015 (UTC)
 * Thank you Mbcap (talk) 19:32, 15 February 2015 (UTC)

How to determine reliability of a foreign published book and does partisanship affect the way it is used?
Hello Anders Feder,

Please could you advise me on how one goes about determining the reliability of a book published in a foreign country, especially if that country has a reputation for restricting the freedom of speech and freedom of expression. Also how does partisanship affect the way a book is used? I am asking these question in reference to the following book but general advice on any book of this nature would be appreciated:
 * Husaini Tehrani, Muhammad Husain. "Imamology" Mashhad Mughaddas: Allama Tabatabaie

The citation does not identify the publisher but its partisanship is undeniable. The citation is used to make claims that a certain Shia book is respected by Sunni Muslims. Can we use this book to make claims about Sunni's view of a specific Shia book, in light of maintaining NPOV and using reliable sources? I would be grateful for your assistance. Mbcap (talk) 12:34, 19 February 2015 (UTC)
 * As as a matter of fact, I have come across that reference myself, and have been wondering the same thing. The citation given here gives a link to a (pay-walled) online e-book version here. The e-book page gives a link to a BibTeX file here. In the BibTeX file, the publisher is listed as "علامه طباطبایی", which is presumably(?) a reference to Allameh Tabataba'i University, which of course is directly controlled by the Iranian state. In my view, if that is indeed the publisher, it's neutrality is clearly questionable. For the time being, I think the only way to settle cases like these is to bring them to the WP:RSN. But it's extremely cumbersome given the preponderance of citations like this on Wikipedia, particularly because RSN frequently don't respond at all. In the future, I would like to see some kind of guideline that place much stricter limits on how sources like these can be used, if at all.--Anders Feder (talk) 08:52, 20 February 2015 (UTC)
 * Thank you for the reply. Firstly can we delete the page, Allameh Tabataba'i University, to which you have posted a link to above. The entire page is a copy paste job of this website[]. I am not familiar on how to delete a page with haste. A way needs to be found to stop Wikipedia from becoming a bastion of mediocrity. My previous question was part of a bigger issue which I am concerned about. The only way to describe it is, that a significant proportion of Islam articles, whether it is Sunni, Shia, Ahmady, Ismaili, Sufi, etc, etc, etc, are filled with underhanded non-RS compliant polemic whiff whaffery masquerading as articles that comply with WP:RS and all other related policies, when in fact a weighty chunk of the sources come from polemic sites, fan sites, discussion forums and other related unreliable sources & co. These pages need to be built using our guidelines and surely there must be an avenue to address this on a broad scale rather than tackling each page, one by one.

 * Now to the book mentioned above; this book is a Shia partisan book, produced by a publisher whose reliability cannot be verified. I understand that regardless of the partisanship, the book can be used when adding content regarding views and works, in the articles of Shia school, because the author seems to be a Shia Islam expert (but even his expertise is not established) but apart from that, can the book be used for anything else. Is there a relavent wikipedia policy on the use of sources in religion articles, especially in terms of how WP:RS is applied. Thank you for your help. Regards Mbcap (talk) 12:33, 20 February 2015 (UTC)

Reference errors on 14 April
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 * On the Stephen Hawking page, [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=656497785 your edit] caused a cite error (help) . ([ Fix] | [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Help_desk&action=edit&section=new&preload=User:ReferenceBot/helpform&preloadtitle=Referencing%20errors%20on%20%5B%5BSpecial%3ADiff%2F656497785%7CStephen Hawking%5D%5D Ask for help])

AN/I notice
There is a discussion at the administrators' noticeboard for intervention regarding Strivingsoul. -Kudzu1 (talk) 16:53, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

Kerry's statement about Ayatollah Khamenei
According to different sites like: www.washingtontimes.com, freebeacon.com , allenbwest.com , www.newsmax.com and www.unitedwithisrael.org John Kerry the foreign Minister of the USA has said that: he ‘wished U.S. had a leader like Iran’s supreme leader’. So I am sure that you have deleted that text without any logical reason. And also you are slandering.Rastegarfar.mo (talk) 10:01, 7 May 2015 (UTC)
 * I don't care what you are "sure of". Stop adding fabrications and propaganda to Wikipedia.--Anders Feder (talk) 19:12, 7 May 2015 (UTC)
 * If you don't care what I say about your behavior and why I added that news and events by referring to different medias and websites, so be sure that I don't care about what you say. You are warring. Stop this bad behavior. I just said, that statement has been published on the medias in USA not just in Islamic countries.Rastegarfar.mo (talk) 06:05, 9 May 2015 (UTC)
 * No, I am not. You are: . The statement you added has not "been published on the medias in USA". The articles you've linked to are just making fun of the ridiculous Iranian state media and the fact that anyone would believe them.--Anders Feder (talk) 06:33, 9 May 2015 (UTC)

Reference errors on 8 May
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 * On the Islamic unity page, [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=661437693 your edit] caused an empty citation error (help) . ([ Fix] | [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Help_desk&action=edit&section=new&preload=User:ReferenceBot/helpform&preloadtitle=Referencing%20errors%20on%20%5B%5BSpecial%3ADiff%2F661437693%7CIslamic unity%5D%5D Ask for help])

OCLC number
Do you know any software which change the OCLC number to ISBN? With thanks.--Salman mahdi (talk) 12:43, 15 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Look the OCLC number up at https://www.worldcat.org/ If an ISBN is registered, it should be listed under "Details".--Anders Feder (talk) 16:01, 15 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Did the above work? (Not sure if you got the ping, since I had forgot to sign the message.)--Anders Feder (talk) 06:35, 16 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Thanks, I had looked at worldcat, but the book had not ISBN number, just it had OCLC number. Is the ISBN number needed when I want to make the article a FA?--Salman mahdi (talk) 11:21, 16 June 2015 (UTC)
 * No, OCLC should be just as good as ISBN as far as I know.--Anders Feder (talk) 17:55, 16 June 2015 (UTC)

MfD nomination of User:Anders Feder/ImproveIslamArticles
User:Anders Feder/ImproveIslamArticles, a page you substantially contributed to, has been nominated for deletion. Your opinions on the matter are welcome; please participate in the discussion by adding your comments at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/User:Anders Feder/ImproveIslamArticles and please be sure to sign your comments with four tildes ( ~ ). You are free to edit the content of User:Anders Feder/ImproveIslamArticles during the discussion but should not remove the miscellany for deletion template from the top of the page; such a removal will not end the deletion discussion. Thank you. نان (talk) 13:37, 17 June 2015 (UTC)

Please remove the line about ululations
Please can you remove the line "When you point out that some change they made is wrong, they stick their fingers in their ears and do a ululation (watch)," from your otherwise kind of useful Improve Islam articles guide. It's racial stereotyping. Would you think it ok if an ImproveJudaismArticles had a sentence saying "When you point out that some change they made is wrong, they ignore it and shout "oy vey" over and over again?" What about an ImproveHinduismArticles essay that contains the sentence "When you point out that some change they made is wrong, they plug their ears and go snake charming?" In the MfD discussion you say that skewed editing is tastless, and this is true. But that doesnt mean your racially stereotyping joke about ululations isn't tastless too. Even if you don't find it tastless yourself, please keep in mind that others could. It doesnt add anything informative to your essay and could offend people. It's not like anything important will be lost from the meaning of your essay if you remove that sentence, so please can you do it? Bosstopher (talk) 10:08, 21 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Not while it is nominated for deletion.--Anders Feder (talk) 11:00, 21 June 2015 (UTC)
 * So you'll remove it when the deletion nomination is over (it looks like it's almost definitely going to be kept)? If so, thank you.
 * If that is what the closing admin instructs me to do, I will of course comply. But I fundamentally disagree with your implication that it is bigoted.--Anders Feder (talk) 11:25, 21 June 2015 (UTC)

Ismah
May I ask you to copy-edit this article and help me to make it a FA? With great thanks.--Salman mahdi (talk) 13:25, 21 June 2015 (UTC)
 * I'll have a look later today.--Anders Feder (talk) 13:34, 21 June 2015 (UTC)

 * Thanks.--Salman mahdi (talk) 13:48, 21 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Is it possible for you to copy edit the article? --Salman mahdi (talk) 06:38, 6 July 2015 (UTC)

Your accusations
Please consider that accusations about personal behavior that lack evidence is deemed as personal attack. Serious accusations require serious evidence. I found you accusing me here without providing any evidences. Btw, I think you and Mbcap just seem to have close interest areas for editing and there's no reason to say that you are collaborators, as you accused me here. Mhhossein (talk) 13:40, 24 June 2015 (UTC)
 * There is nothing whatsoever wrong with having "close interest areas" with another legitimate editor. What should give you pause is your having mutual interests with a well-known POV-pusher who has been blocked 10+ times already. As for "evidence", I suggest you review your contribution history.--Anders Feder (talk) 16:01, 24 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Did I say anything is wrong? Well, the fact is that nothing gives me pause except Wikipedia rules and policies. I don't care who else is editing the pages I'm editing. However, your accusations are not in accordance with editing policies of Wikipedia as I said once. Mhhossein (talk) 00:57, 25 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Of course they are.--Anders Feder (talk) 00:59, 25 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Nope! Mhhossein (talk) 01:06, 25 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Yup! You don't have a clue about what the policies of Wikipedia are anyway.--Anders Feder (talk) 01:07, 25 June 2015 (UTC)
 * OK, if you think so, Please tell me what they are. I'll be nice to learn more about policies! Mhhossein (talk) 01:11, 25 June 2015 (UTC)
 * You'd have to read them and decide for yourself. But certainly there is no policy that deem raising concerns about your affinity for referencing bogus sources a "personal attack".--Anders Feder (talk) 01:51, 25 June 2015 (UTC)

Mhhossein Why am I pinged in this conversation? Mbcap (talk) 07:26, 25 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Stating one's 'affinity for raising bogus sources' without providing evidences is another personal attack based on the policies. isn't it? Mhhossein (talk) 13:08, 25 June 2015 (UTC)
 * No it isn't. It's a fair assessment of your contribution history.--Anders Feder (talk) 13:12, 25 June 2015 (UTC)
 * You call it 'fair'! Mhhossein (talk) 00:50, 27 June 2015 (UTC)
 * And that is what it is.--Anders Feder (talk) 01:19, 28 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Definitely maybe! Mhhossein (talk) 13:18, 30 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Great album.--Anders Feder (talk) 14:42, 30 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Mbcap nothing special. You may follow the thread if you like. Sorry if I shouldn't have pinged you. Mhhossein (talk) 13:08, 25 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Mhhossein I see. Thank you for explaining. Mbcap (talk) 23:44, 26 June 2015 (UTC)

Abdul Rasul Zarrin
Hello. I saw you posted a comment on the Talk page for Abdul Rasul Zarrin regarding the notability of this 'sniper'. I've added it to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Log/2015_July_25#Abdul_Rasul_Zarrin for comment by other editors. Londonclanger (talk) 21:24, 25 July 2015 (UTC)

Journey to Heading 270 Degrees
Hey Anders, you seem to have a lot of experience dealing with sockfarms and weirdness in the Iranian politics topic area so I thought I'd ask you about this. Do you know what's going on with this article? Past few weeks a number of different new accounts have been editing the page. I'd suspect they're the banned sock who created the page, but they all seem to have a much better mastery of English grammar than him. Any clue where they could be coming from and what their purpose is? Brustopher (talk) 16:49, 3 August 2015 (UTC)
 * I've been surprised about the activity in that article too, but other than many of the accounts being new, I honestly can't trace much of a pattern yet. They often edit in topic areas very different from the ones favored by the creator. They also don't add blatant bias, so no damage seems to be done, for now.--Anders Feder (talk) 17:03, 3 August 2015 (UTC)

criticism of 12er shia
why do you keep re-adding info for ashura? Khamenais ban is already mentioned and hezbolloh blood drive doesn't answer the specific criticisms. It sounds like promotional info instead. Also, hezbolloh pledges loyalty to khamenai anyway so there view is actually his view so really doesn't need adding or repeating.58.106.238.112 (talk) 15:04, 18 August 2015 (UTC)
 * The source is of high quality. At the least have the decency to move it to wherever the ban is mentioned rather than just deleting it.--Anders Feder (talk) 15:12, 18 August 2015 (UTC)
 * That seems like a fair solution. I was not against the source anyway but the other info that was added that was either irrelevant or already mentioned above.58.106.238.112 (talk) 22:19, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

Btw: when i have time i am going to have a closer look at the sources used by Hadi.anani. I am suspicious that he may be adding his own personal views then clothing them with references to legitimise his own views. I am suspicious he is using non-existent "supporting" references to this end (at least for a good chunk of his edits). I will first focus on the Momen, Moojan ref which he repeats quite a bit with a very repetitive and large page range for even some quite specific info. I will get to it soon when i have more free time.58.106.238.112 (talk) 22:39, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

Proposed deletion of Bartolomé de Medina (mining specialist)
Hello, Anders Feder. I wanted to let you know that I’m proposing an article that you started, Bartolomé de Medina (mining specialist), for deletion because it's a biography of a living person that lacks references. If you don't want Bartolomé de Medina (mining specialist) to be deleted, please add a reference to the article.

If you don't understand this message, you can leave a note on my talk page.

Thanks, Arbustum (talk) 22:58, 25 September 2015 (UTC)

The verse of Wilayah
I just cleaned up User:Saff V.'s article on the Verse of Leadership (Quran 5:55) as part of its DYK review and saw some complaints about Shia propaganda in the edit history. Everything seems sourced and neutral to me but could you look it over and make sure that we're not saying anything y? — Llywelyn II   09:04, 11 October 2015 (UTC)
 * The parts I was able to remove were only the most egregious ones. I am mildly skeptical of the views attributed to Sunnis (they seem convenient), but only a Sunni specialist could determine if they are correct. That said, Saff V. seem to be operating in good faith.--Anders Feder (talk) 19:50, 11 October 2015 (UTC)
 * Oh, he is. Just double-checking the sources. Thanks for your time. — Llywelyn II   03:00, 12 October 2015 (UTC)

ArbCom elections are now open!
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 08:52, 23 November 2015 (UTC)

Aether Theories
We notice that you don't read so. What was wrong with the contribute of the Aether Theories article? Didn't you read Wilczek's book and papers? If you're not informed about Science history let other people better aknowledged to modify the article in the proper way. Einstein stated that consider reality without a medium make Relativity impossible (go and verify by yourself if you don't believe us). This has to be written in the article. Thanks

User page: Vespro Latuna 17 December 2015 15:11 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Vespro Latuna (talk • contribs)

Disambiguation link notification for June 9
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Nomination for deletion of Template:Incumbent
Template:Incumbent has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. — Andy W. ( talk  · ctb) 01:39, 15 June 2016 (UTC)
 * Scratch that, didn't mean to bother you. Didn't notice the other "incumbent" templates and wasn't entirely sure of use case before I nominated. — Andy W. ( talk  · ctb) 01:42, 15 June 2016 (UTC)

Reversion of edit
I have reverted this edit to the Philippine–American War article. From the information you gave in the edit summary, that does not appear to me to be an appropriate solution to such a problem. Excuse the terseness, please -- I'm in a rush. Wtmitchell (talk) (earlier Boracay Bill) 06:36, 7 September 2016 (UTC)

Reference errors on 17 September
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BRD
Rather than simply reverting my reversion, the WP model is WP:BRD: Bold editing, reversion, discussion. You should take this issue to the talk page rather than simply insist on your version. -- Elphion (talk) 16:11, 11 February 2017 (UTC)

 * Look, since you've been around for 11 years, you already know that BRD is good practice, whether policy or no. Simple reversion with "And?" is like waving a red flag. -- Elphion (talk) 16:37, 11 February 2017 (UTC)
 * How could I know something that is not the case? Good practice is to seek to create consensus, whether it involves you being the one to start the discussion on the talk page or not – not just citing an essay as a I-get-one-revert-for-free card.--Anders Feder (talk) 17:10, 11 February 2017 (UTC)

Proposed deletion of Digital Network Intelligence

The article Digital Network Intelligence has been proposed for deletion because of the following concern: "Per WP:NOTDICT. Iazyges  Consermonor   Opus meum  04:33, 3 March 2018 (UTC)"

While all constructive contributions to Wikipedia are appreciated, pages may be deleted for any of several reasons.

You may prevent the proposed deletion by removing the notice, but please explain why in your edit summary or on the article's talk page.

Please consider improving the page to address the issues raised. Removing will stop the proposed deletion process, but other deletion processes exist. In particular, the speedy deletion process can result in deletion without discussion, and articles for deletion allows discussion to reach consensus for deletion. Iazyges  Consermonor   Opus meum  04:33, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

About 2017
Hello, I wrote "in 2017, it began on 21 April 2017." because the exercise itself does not began in 2017. the 2017 version began on April 2017, the exercise itself does not. Hope this explain that sentence in question. --Fauzty (talk) 16:28, 16 May 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks for clarifying. Are there any sources for the claim that there are multiple "versions" of the exercise?--Anders Feder (talk) 17:05, 16 May 2018 (UTC)

Possible sock?
Could there be a connection between that account and Strivingsoul? I couldn't help but notice the latter's contributions a few years back during the initial stages of the ongoing Yemen war, but only realized just now that this editor was banned. Looks like a duck to me. Fitzcarmalan (talk) 09:30, 17 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Certainly. Only a checkuser can access the hard evidence, but there is nothing in their behavior that doesn't fit the mold of Strivingsoul: The narrow focus on Irano-Shia propaganda-pushing. The endless dramawhoring. The self-righteous, pseudo-intellectual victim playing, attributing everything that goes against them to "Israel", "neocons" etc. They've also received multiple blocks on Persian Wikipedia. The fact that admins continue to let these Islamist POV warriors run loose is testament to their unbounded incompetence.--Anders Feder (talk) 13:08, 17 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Also note their page here. It is written to seem innocuous: I'd agree American media have a corporate bias. But the user's actual activity does not reflect the idea that they are interested in correcting bias in general - they narrowly engage in disputes over content related to Iran and Shiism. This makes their so-called "media bias project" seem uncannily similar to Strivingsoul's notion of "correcting" so-called "systematic bias", which they invoked multiple times as justification for using unreliable, pro-Iran sources.
 * Strivingsoul stated that they were "planning and preparing" and "hoping" to do something about this so-called "systematic bias" on Wikipedia, like that was a mission of theirs. The new user's so-called "media bias project", given the above considerations, reads exactly like an implementation or restatement of this mission, which fully suggests a line of continuity between the two user accounts. On the basis of this, I agree it smells like WP:DUCK.--Anders Feder (talk) 14:18, 17 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Just to be clear, I don't disagree with the philosophy of presenting all POVs equally (within reason, of course). But yes, this user seems to be pushing their POV way beyond the line. The pattern shown on Battle of Al Hudaydah fits the description you provided here, particularly this edit and their repeated insertion of the highly POV word "aggression" in the article. Would you be willing to file a report? I have not interacted with this user as much as you have. Fitzcarmalan (talk) 20:23, 17 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks, but I don't want to interact with Wikipedia's incompetent admins at all. Good luck.--Anders Feder (talk) 21:07, 17 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Would it be at least okay with you if I copypasted some/most of the evidence described here? I don't feel like this particular duck case is worth my time and effort. Fitzcarmalan (talk) 08:32, 18 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Sure.--Anders Feder (talk) 10:20, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

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Nomination for deletion of Module:OfficeData
Module:OfficeData has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the module's entry on the Templates for discussion page. * Pppery * it has begun... 15:35, 16 March 2020 (UTC)

Copyright problem on Energy islands of Denmark
Content you added to the above article appears to have been copied from https://northseawindpowerhub.eu/23-march-2017-three-tsos-sign-agreement-on-north-sea-wind-power-hub/, which is not released under a compatible license. Copying text directly from a source is a violation of Wikipedia's copyright policy. Unfortunately, for copyright reasons, some content had to be removed and I paraphrased some. Please leave a message on my talk page if you have any questions. — Diannaa (talk) 20:53, 16 February 2021 (UTC)
 * A little overzealous, but I'll work with it. Thank you for patrolling anyway.--Anders Feder (talk) 21:08, 16 February 2021 (UTC)

Next Generation EU
Hello Mr. Feder,

First of all, thank you for editing some parts of our article (Next Generation EU). We have worked on mistakes and improved our article. Thank you to renewing our article once again. — Preceding unsigned comment added by SyhnSnmz10 (talk • contribs) 10:49, 10 May 2021 (UTC)

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Leather subculture

Leather subculture denotes practices and styles of dress organized around sexual activities that involve leather garments, such as leather jackets, vests, boots, chaps, harnesses, or other items. Wearing leather garments is one way that participants in this culture self-consciously distinguish themselves from mainstream sexual cultures. Many participants associate leather culture with BDSM (Bondage/Discipline, Dominance/Submission, Sado/Masochism, also called "SM" or "S&M") practices and its many subcultures. For some, black leather clothing is an erotic fashion that expresses heightened masculinity or the appropriation of sexual power; love of motorcycles, motorcycle clubs and independence; and/or engagement in sexual kink or leather fetishism.

History
The emergence of gay leather as a coherent subculture can be traced back to the second half of the 1940s and the 1950s in major cities of the US. Later, it also developed in other urban centers in most industrialized capitalist countries. While gay leather developed 20 years after heterosexual European and American Fetish styles, it did so relatively isolated from those existing circles and organizations.

Although there is some evidence of BDSM activities among gay men before the Second World War, this "pre-leather" scene has hardly been researched. Due to the double pathologization and criminal prosecution of homosexuality and kinkiness in many parts of the world, many practitioners were extremely cautious and secretive about their activities. As a result, only few sources have survived. The same is true for the early days of the leather scene after WWII. One exception is Samuel Steward (1909-1993) who lived in the US and extensively documented his kinky sexual encounters with other men. He also was part of a study of gay BDSM practices by Alfred Kinsey in 1949.

Formative Years (1940-1968)
The formative period of gay leather subculture took place in the 1940s and 1950s. It mainly originates from two groups: Post-WWII California bikers in Los Angeles and "pre-leather" butch BDSM practitioners in New York City. The leather look first emerged in Los Angeles and subsequently was adopted by men in New York City, Chicago and San Francisco in subequent years. A significant portion of the leather community consisted of queer servicemen and servicewomen returning from WWII, who were congregating in large US-cities after returning to their home country in 1945 and 1946. In Los Angeles, the gay leather scene developed from a broader biker-leather culture. Protective motorcycle clothing at this time was made of tough leather, usually cowhide or horsehide. Biker culture reflected a disaffection with the mainstream culture of post-World War II America, a disaffection whose notoriety — and therefore appeal — expanded after the sensationalized news coverage of the Hollister "riot" of 1947. The 1953 film The Wild One, starring Marlon Brando wearing jeans, a T-shirt, a leather jacket, and cloth biker cap that later inspired leather bike caps, played on pop-cultural fascination with the Hollister "riot" and promoted an image of masculine independence that resonated with some men who were dissatisfied with mainstream culture. The Wild One has been quoted numerous times as formative imagery by leathermen, who described its leather look as masculine, sexual and radical. Although the film didn't create the symbolics of leather, it helped to standardize the masculine leather aesthetic and provided it with nationwide exposure. Artists such as Tom of Finland and Etienne, whose suggestive drawings of well-endowed leather-clad muscle men were published in Physique Pictorial and elsewhere, contributed to the spread of the outlaw biker aesthetic among gay men. Motorcycle culture also reflected some men's disaffection with the cultures more organized around high culture, popular culture (especially musical theater), and/or camp style.

Pioneering gay motorcycle clubs included the Satyrs Motorcycle Club, established in Los Angeles in 1954; Oedipus Motorcycle Club in Los Angeles, which split from the Satyrs in 1958. As well, the gay leather community that emerged from the motorcycle clubs also became the practical and symbolic location for men's open exploration of kink and S&M. Even in those early years, different styles of gay male leather practices could be observed: Strict, formal S&M that was based on military traditions, informal "rough sex" or "buddy sexuality" associated with motorcycle clubs, and leather fetishism, as well as a mixture of all of those three. These varied widely between regions, causing much debate today over which traditions are the original or true traditions, or whether the "romanticized versions of leather history" ever existed at all. Over time, the practitioners of kink and BDSM were joined by those who were primarily interested in the aesthetics and atmosphere of the leather scene.

New York City, which was a hub for queer life at the time, had a small community of gay BDSM practicioners that was already established in the 1940s. It was organzied in the form of informal social networks, mostly through word of mouth and supplemented by encoded personal ads in newspapers. Another fixture were private parties by local players. One facilitator of recurring parties between 1950 and 1953 was Bob Milne, who had moved from Boston to New York City after multiple altercations with law enforcement, including a conviction for homosexual acts in his home. He was well known beyond the city limits.

The New Yorker community appropriated California-style biker leather got appropriated in the mid 1950s, probably around the release of The Wild One (1953). Dedicated motorcycle clubs didn't emerge in New York City until the 1960s, though. The earliest documented bars frequented by leathermen were a cluster of venues in New York City at 50th Street and 3rd Avenue, called the "bird circuit", namely the Golden Pheasant Restaurant, the Blue Parrot Cafe and the Swan Club. Later, Shaw's (1953), the Lodge (1954) and the Big Dollar (1959) emerged as early "leather-friendly" bars. The lodge also imposed a dress code of leather, meaning mostly leather motorcycle jackets.

After Milne's departure in 1953 Frank Olson became a central player in New York City, mostly by facilitating contacts between practitioners via telephone and in leather-friendly bars, and organizing private parties in New York City and at Fire Island resort. Especially during the mid-60s crackdown on gay bars leading up to the 1964 New York World's Fair he held the loose group together. In 1970 Milne opened his own leather bar with his lover Don Morrison, the Eagle's Nest, later renamed the Eagle.

""If you knew Frank Olson, it was your ticket to meeting other people who were into S&M. [...] Frank was the go-to-guy New York — in London it was Felix, Berlin it was George. It guaranteed you could always find a heavy sex night in the city. You could be pretty sure that if you got tied up, you wouldn’t get killed.""

- Don Morrison

Dedicated leather bars slowly emerged between the 1950s and the 1960s in major Cities of the US (notably New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco) and in Europe, gaining immense popularity in the 1970s. According to Lucas Hilderbrand, leather bars played an important role by giving the scene coherence as well as providing sites for assembly. Especially in the period before Stonewall, the patrons were regularly threatened by police raids. In contrast, the motorcycle clubs' regular bike runs provided opportunities for undisturbed partying and sex outdoors. In the 1970s, leather bars also became sponsors of leather contests, as well as sexual spaces (sex in bars was illegal, but mostly tolerated), evident in the back rooms, dark corners or basements which had become a regular feature of many establishments.

From the 1960s onward, leather bars became a central fixture of gay leather life, that provided a gathering space for the community and a point of entry into the scene for newcomers. Bars also played a key role in turning leather into a consumable aesthetic and identity, often enforced by dress codes. Several influencal authors, who would later write about the leather subculture, are known to have joined the scene during the mid-1960s, among them Joseph Bean, Guy Baldwin, and John Preston. As Guy Baldwin stated:

""My introduction to leather life was really my introduction to leather bar life.""

- Guy Baldwin

The first leather bars had their origins in ordinary venues that were regularly patronized by groups of leathermen. The best-known example of this is the Gold Coast in Chicago, which became a popular meeting place for the local scene in the late 1950s. After the unexpected death of the owner, Chuck Renslow bought it and reopened as a queer-owned leather bar in 1960. An iconic feature were the murals done by Renslow's partner Dom Orejudos (pen name Etienne), who also designed its logo and posters.

In San Francisco, South of Market became the hub of the leather subculture in the gay community in 1962 when the Tool Box opened its doors as the first leather bar in the neighborhood. operated from 1962 to 1971 on the east corner of 4th Street and Harrison Street and was often frequented by motorcycle clubs like the Satyrs and Oedipus. The Tool Box became famous nationwide due to the June 1964 Paul Welch Life article entitled "Homosexuality In America," the first time a national publication reported on gay issues. Life's photographer was referred to the Tool Box by Hal Call, who had long worked to dispel the myth that all homosexual men were effeminate. The article opened with a two-page spread of the mural of life size leathermen in the bar, which had been painted by Chuck Arnett in 1962. The article described San Francisco as "The Gay Capital of America" and inspired many gay leathermen to move there. When the Stud, along with Febe's, opened up on Folsom Street in San Francisco in 1966, other gay leather bars and establishments catering to the leather subculture followed creating a foundation for the growing gay leather community.

The Golden Age (1969-82)
The 1970s are considered the heyday of leather culture, also referred to as the Golden Age. During this time, the subculture grew by leaps and bounds worldwide, accompanied by increasing organization, diversification, improving networks and visibility. Leather bars became sponsors of leather contests, inspired by beauty pageants, as well as sexual spaces (sex in bars was illegal, but mostly tolerated), evident in the back rooms, dark corners or basements which had become a regular feature of many establishments. Another feature of US-leather bars in the 1970s were bootblacks, e.g. the Gold Coast in Chicago and the Ramrod in New York City were fitted with bootblack stands. Another new development was the hanky code, which communicated sexual preferences through colored handkerchiefs. The first leather contest was most likely the "Mr. Gold Coast" pageant held in 1972 in the Gold Coast in Chicago, which was rebranded as International Mr. Leather in 1979. Notable sex clubs of the time include the Mineshaft (1976-1985) in New York City, Inferno weekend in Chicago (since 1976) and the Catacombs (1975-1984) in San Francisco. The "leather daddy" archetype from the late 1970s, which has sadomasochistic associations, led to the creation of the daddy archetype in queer culture.

While the scene had functioned via oral tradition and personal referral in the previous decades, the rapid growth in numerous cities was accompanied by the emergence of printed publications. This also led to greater formalization and standardization — the communities on the East and West coasts had previously developed differing traditions, such as whether S or M stood for sadist and masochist or for slave and master, or on which side keys were worn to indicate one's role. Larry Townsend's The Leatherman's Handbook (1972) is considered the first non-fiction book about the leather scene. In 1974, the first issue of Drummer magazine was published in Los Angeles, which was the most successful of the American leather magazines, and sold overseas. The publication had a major impact of spreading gay leather as a lifestyle and masculinity as a gay ideal. The magazine was focused on quality writings about leather, accompanied by erotic foto series and ilustrations, and written erotica. For example, the erotic novel Mr. Benson by John Preston was first published in serialized form in Drummer magazine between 1979 and 1980 with a claimed press run of 42,000 copies per issue.

In the 1970s Berlin, Germany had a huge leather scene with several leather clubs in the area around Nollendorfplatz. The pornographic films of one of Tom of Finland's models Peter Berlin from Berlin, such as his 1973 film Nights in Black Leather, also reflected and promoted the leather subcultural aesthetic. In 1975 (some say since 1973 ) Europe's biggest fetish event started, Easter in Berlin Leather Festival, organized annually by Berlin Leder und Fetisch e.V. MSC Hamburg began hosting an annual "international leather-party" in Hamburg in 1972. Also in Europe younger men combined the aesthetic and exploration of sexual power with the gay skinhead movement and social-fraternal organizations, from the late 1970s.

Cynthia Slater's activism for women to be accepted within the gay leather scene in San Francisco during the late 1970s brought her to mainstream attention. Slater persuaded the management of San Francisco's S/M leather club the Catacombs, the most famous fisting club in the world, to open up to lesbians; it was originally a gay men's club. It operated from 1975 to 1981, and reopened at another location from 1982 to 1984. Slater was also an early proponent of S/M safety, and one of the major AIDS activists and educators during the late 1970s. Slater hosted Society of Janus safety demonstrations during the late 1970s, cultivating a space for women within the 'plurality of gay men' already present within the leather/kink/fetish Venn-diagramatic culture.

Pat Califia, who identified as a lesbian at the time, was an activist in the San Francisco leather subculture, and is credited for defining the emergence of lesbian leather subculture. On June 13, 1978, Pat Califia, Gayle Rubin, and sixteen others co-founded Samois, a lesbian-feminist BDSM organization in San Francisco that existed from 1978 to 1983 and was the first lesbian BDSM group in the United States. (More under "Lesbian" below). In recent decades the leather community has been considered a subset of BDSM culture rather than the BDSM community being considered a subset of leather culture. Even so, the most visibly organized SM community related to leather has been a subculture of leather, as evidenced by the American competition known as International Mr. Leather (IML, established 1979), and SM in the UK (established 1981). International Ms. Leather was first held in 1987.

In 1979 the newly formed San Francisco lesbian motorcycle club, Dykes on Bikes, led what was then called the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade for the first time and has done so ever since (since 1994, the event has been called the San Francisco Pride Parade). By the mid-1980s, lesbian motorcycle enthusiasts in other cities besides San Francisco began to form motorcycle clubs.

Leather and Lace, a woman's leather/BDSM support and social group, was founded in Los Angeles in 1980. The women of Leather and Lace learned the "old guard" traditions from the men of Avatar. Leather and Lace had a code of conduct and a uniform that could only be worn once a member earned the right.

The Age of political mobilization (1983-)
The leather community was hit hard by several effects of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the mid-1980s. In the 1980s and early 1990s, lesbian leatherwomen were often involved in helping to care for gay leathermen who had been stricken with AIDS. In addition, leather title holders used their platform for fundraising purposes and advocacy work, and kinksters became more active in existing rights groups, joining the fight against AIDS. On the one hand, the leather community faced increased hostility—both mainstream society and the vanilla queer community blamed the allegedly "extreme" and "unsafe" sex practices of gay kinksters for the outbreak of the epidemic, with fisting being especially frowned upon. On the other hand, a nationwide political campaign to close sex clubs, bathhouses and similar establishments was successful, and within a few years many institutions that had played a central role within the community were shut down. The forced closing of bathhouses and increased regulation of leather bars sped up the ongoing gentrification in big cities, that already threatened their existence, so that the leather districts shrank rapidly after the explosive expansion of the 1970s.

In 1984, the Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco was held for the first time, made possible by housing activists and community organizers, to provide means for fundraising, and create opportunities for members of the leather community to connect to services and vital information (e.g., regarding safer sex) that bathhouses and bars might otherwise have been situated to distribute. It was and still is the world's largest leather event and showcase for BDSM products and culture.

Competing in the 1986 International Mr. Leather contest inspired Steve Maidhof to organize a conference for members of the growing leather, SM, and fetish community, which would focus on education and political activism. To host this conference, named Living in Leather, Maidhof recruited several friends and leading members of Seattle's leather community including: Cookie Andrews-Hunt, Wayne Gloege, Billy Jefferson, Jan Lyon, George Nelson, and Vik Stump. Together, they formed the National Leather Association (NLA), which officially incorporated in the summer of 1986. In October, they hosted the first Living in Leather (LIL) conference. Adding "International" to its name in 1991, the National Leather Association-International staged "Living in Leather" gatherings until 2002. After a period of decline around the turn of the millennium, NLA-I has become more active again and runs a series of awards for fiction and non-fiction writing. In 1987, Judy Tallwing McCarthey was the leather community's keynote speaker at the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.

Jack Fritscher's short-story collection Corporal in Charge of Taking Care of Captain O'Malley (Gay Sunshine Press, 1984) was the first collection of leather fiction, and the first collection of fiction from Drummer. The title entry Corporal in Charge was the only play published by editor Winston Leyland in the Lambda Literary Award winner Gay Roots: Twenty Years of Gay Sunshine - An Anthology of Gay History, Sex, Politics & Culture (1991).

The Leather Archives and Museum in Chicago was founded in 1991 by Chuck Renslow and Tony DeBlase as a “community archives, library, and museum of leather, kink, fetish, and BDSM history and culture.”

The leather community doubled down on its efforts to depathologize consensual BDSM and end the stigmatization of BDSM practitioners. From 1987 onwards, leathermen Race Bannon and Guy Baldwin in particular campaigned for the removal of BDSM practices from the DSM.

In 1997 the (American) National Coalition for Sexual Freedom was founded; the NCSF's mission as described on its web page is: "The NCSF is committed to creating a political, legal and social environment in the US that advances equal rights for consenting adults who engage in alternative sexual and relationship expressions. The NCSF aims to advance the rights of, and advocate for consenting adults in the BDSM-Leather-Fetish, Swing, and Polyamory Communities. We pursue our vision through direct services, education, advocacy, and outreach, in conjunction with our partners, to directly benefit these communities."

In 2002, an article in The Washington Post publicly highlighted Jack McGeorge's leadership in the Washington, D.C. leather and BDSM community. McGeorge had made no attempt to conceal his involvement in the BDSM and leather lifestyles; his full name appeared prominently on websites, and he said as much to the Post and other media. He did, however, offer his resignation to Hans Blix, hoping to preserve the credibility of his organization (the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, called UNMOVIC) before the weapons inspections in Iraq. Blix refused to accept McGeorge's resignation. Later, Hua Jiang, spokeswoman for U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, said that being into BDSM was no more likely to be a cross-cultural problem in the Middle East than any number of other issues.

Mark Leno was the first out leatherman to be a state legislator in the United States; he served in the California State Assembly from 2002 to 2008.

In 2005 Viola Johnson started The Carter/Johnson Library & Collection, a “collection of thousands of books, magazines, posters, art, club and event pins, newspapers, event programs and ephemera showing leather, fetish, S/M erotic history."

In 2009 the Leather Hall of Fame began inducting members.

Leather & Grace, a (now defunct) organization of Unitarian Universalist kinksters, was founded in 2011, and combined a red flaming chalice with the stripes of the leather pride flag for their logo.

The LGBTQ and Leather Cultural District was created in South of Market, San Francisco in 2018. It includes the San Francisco South of Market Leather History Alley, with four works of art, which opened in 2017.

Lately, the leather subculture is one of many facets to semi-organized alternative sexuality. Many individuals describe long periods of introspection leading to their choice to identify as "leather". Others do not necessarily associate their leather lifestyle with BDSM, and simply enjoy the sensory experience of leather.

The more specific aesthetics of men's leather culture drew on sources including military and police uniforms. This influence is particularly evident in the graphical illustrations of leathermen found in the work of Tom of Finland. The pornographic films of one of his models Peter Berlin from Berlin, such as his 1973 film Nights in Black Leather, also reflected and promoted the leather subcultural aesthetic.

The Myth of the Old Guard
Today, the term "Old Guard", "Old Leather" or "Old Guard Leather" has several meanings. Originally, "Old Guard" refers to the beginnings of the leather scene, from around the end of WWII in 1945 to the mid or late 1960s. Over the decades, this early period has been so strongly romanticized and idealized, both in fictional works and by practitioners themselves, that it has become the origin myth of the leather subculture. An example of this are the fictional works of Thom Magister. The Old Guard is usually portrayed as a secret close-knit community of like-minded men (e.g. in the form of motorcycle clubs), who developed a uniform hierarchical, high-protocol set of BDSM practices based on military models and lived according to a strict ethics, that included initiation, brotherhood, discipline and the pursuit of excellence. This "pure form" of leather culture allegedly was increasingly pushed underground in the 1960s, when the first leather bars established themselves and the leather scene received an enormous influx of newcomers, not all of whom were interested in the BDSM and fetish aspects of the scene. This narrative often includes serious criticism of the increasing commodification and politicization of the leather scene, as well as the introduction of safety principles like sane, safe, consensual (SSC), the inclusion and further education of outsiders, which all slowly gained momentum in the 1960s and reached a peak in the 1980s. According to critics, as a result of these developments, the original anarchistic, rebellious character of leather and its mystery were lost, and the original teachings diluted.

The discourse about the Old Guard and its historical existence has mainly been conducted since the end of the 1980s. One example of this is the anthology Leatherfolk: radical sex, people, politics, and practice by Mark Thompson, which was published in 1992 and brought together different, sometimes contradictory perspectives on leather culture. The term "New Guard" or "New Leather" emerged in distinction from "Old Guard", with both often being portrayed as polar opposites—casual versus strict, informal versus formal. But as Gayle Rubin, Jack Rinella and Joseph Bean have pointed out, both of those expressions existed from the start within the subculture.

With this context in mind, today "Old Guard" is often used pejoratively to describe older members of the leather community who hold conservative views which are seen as outdated or toxic, e.g. in terms of "correct" behavior or the inclusion of different groups of people within the scene.

There have been several revival attempts of a leather culture modeled after the ideal of the Old Guard, such as John Weal's The Leatherman's Protocol Handbook (2010). The author refers to his initiation by Old Guard instructors and presents a uniform protocol that allegedly all traditional leathermen followed. However, the book has been criticized as not being true to the historical facts, and incorporates practices which can be traced back to different sources, such as submissive positions of heterosexual Gorean BDSM.

Subcultures
Today, while some may still use the term strictly in the old-fashioned sense (i.e., the romanticized Old Guard), more than ever the leather subculture in the 21st century represents the activities of several major sub-communities. These include BDSM practitioners, and people who have a preference for aggressive or masculine sexual styles; people who love motorcycles; people involved in kink or leather fetishism; and people who participate in large-scale cultural and marketing events such as Folsom Street Fair or leather-themed circuit parties.

Lesbians
Although gay men are the most visible demographic of the leather community, there are numerous women who identify as leatherwomen – and women have the International Ms. Leather (IMsL) event as their corollary to International Mr. Leather (IML). An example of a leatherwoman is Joan Jett, who has a leather pride sticker prominently displayed on her guitar.

Relatively few lesbian women were visible during the early emergence of the leather subculture. Pat Califia, who identified as a lesbian at the time, was an activist in the San Francisco leather subculture, and is credited for defining the emergence of lesbian leather subculture. On June 13, 1978, Pat Califia, Gayle Rubin, and sixteen others co-founded Samois, a lesbian-feminist BDSM organization in San Francisco that existed from 1978 to 1983 and was the first lesbian BDSM group in the United States. (More under "Lesbian" below) In recent decades the leather community has been considered a subset of BDSM culture rather than a descendant of that culture. Even so, the most visibly organized SM community related to leather has been a subculture of leather, as evidenced by the American competition known as International Mr. Leather (established 1979), and SM in the UK (established 1981). International Ms. Leather was first held in 1987, with the first winner being Judy Tallwing McCarthey,  a lesbian.

In 1979 the newly formed San Francisco lesbian motorcycle club, Dykes on Bikes, led what was then called the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade for the first time and has done so ever since (since 1994, the event has been called the San Francisco Pride Parade).

Leather and Lace, a woman's leather/BDSM support and social group, was founded in Los Angeles in 1980. The women of Leather and Lace learned the "old guard" traditions from the men of Avatar. Leather and Lace had a code of conduct and a uniform that could only be worn once a member earned the right. In New York, there was LSM. Only members of the club were allowed to know that LSM stood for Lesbian Sex Mafia.

By the mid-1980s, lesbian motorcycle enthusiasts in other cities besides San Francisco began to form motorcycle clubs.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, lesbian leatherwomen were often involved in helping to care for gay leathermen who had been stricken with AIDS.

Deaf people
In 1986, Baltimore Leather Association of the Deaf (BLADeaf), the first deaf leather club in America, was founded. Its original name was Maryland Lambda Alliance of the Deaf and it had three name changes before its name was changed to BLADeaf. It was founded by Elwood C. Bennett, Scott Wilson, and Harry "Abbe" Woosley Jr. According to BLADeaf, the fact of the Baltimore Eagle being BLADeaf's home bar means the Baltimore Eagle is the world's first bar to home a deaf leather organization.

In 1989, a deaf chapter of the National Leather Association called “NLA: Deaf Chapter”, which eventually became International Deaf Leather, was founded by Michael Felts, Philip Rubin, Bob Donaldson, Rolf Hagton, Jim Dunne, Bobby Andrascik and Charles Wilkinson. International Deaf Leather held contests for the titles International Ms. Deaf Leather, International Mr. Deaf Leather, and International Deaf Leather Boy. International Deaf Leather also bestowed the Michael Felts Lifetime Achievement Award, which in 1997 was given to Baltimore Leather Association of the Deaf (BLADeaf) cofounder Harry “Abbé” Woosley Jr., and the International Deaf Leather Recognition Award, which in 1998 was given to Baltimore Leather Association of the Deaf (BLADeaf). International Deaf Leather ended in 2021.

Deaf leathermen have continued to compete at IML; in 1992, IML featured three deaf contestants.

Bootblacks
With the establishment of local, regional and international bootblack contests in the 1990s and early 2000s, bootblacks began to gain visibility as a subculture in their own right. Nowadays, bootblack stands as well as classes on bootblacking are common fixtures at events, contests, conferences and parties. Bootblacking is rooted in service to the leather community and the care of the gear Leatherpeople use, such as leather jackets, vests, boots, chaps, harnesses, or items made from rubber, neoprene or other materials. They are not only preserving the physical items (many of which have been gifted, earned or inherited) but are also collecting the stories of their wearers. Therefore, bootblacks play a central role in the oral history of the leather scene.

Various age groups
In the United States, men's leather culture has been associated with men above the age of 40, but recent years have seen growing numbers of younger leather men. Also, in much of the rest of the world, including Europe and Australia, there is a merging of the established older leather community with young leathermen and leatherwomen and kink/fetish/gear communities. In Europe, younger men have combined the aesthetic and exploration of sexual power with the gay skinhead movement and social-fraternal organizations like BLUF, from the late 1970s.

Leather Pride Flag
The leather pride flag was designed by Tony DeBlase, who first presented it at International Mr. Leather in Chicago, Illinois on May 28, 1989. DeBlase considered the flag to be a first draft and expected the community would suggest changes to the design. While some community members wanted a say in the final design, the majority embraced DeBlase's original design as-is. To this day, the flag has not undergone any significant revisions.

In June 1989 the flag was used by the leather contingent in a Portland, Oregon pride parade, which was its first appearance at a pride parade.

Art
Artists and photographers have played a crucial role in the leather scene. In the early days, they created works that gave the emerging subculture a face and visualized taboo sexual fantasies, whether in the form of murals in bars and clubs, drawings and photo spreads in magazines (e.g. Drummer magazine) or comics, and made a decisive contribution to its dissemination.

In oral histories, for example, the works of Tom of Finland are repeatedly described as influential for one's own sexual biography. Many men identified with his characters, who were pictured as mansculine and virile, thus defeating homophobic stereotypes of effeminacy. Tom's drawings were central to the development and dissemination of a more unified gay leather aesthetic, resulting in the so-called "clone look" of the 1970s and 1980s. "Tom's work wasn't pornography. It was salvation."

- Robert J. Pierce

Many artists who play a major cultural role in the leather scene are usually hardly known beyond this due to the erotic and pornographic content of their works. Exceptions are the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe and the illustrator Tom of Finland. The Tom of Finland Foundation (ToFF), which was founded in 1984, aims to promote erotic art and support erotic artists through scholarship programs.

Influential artists of the leather scene include:

 * Tom of Finland
 * Dom Orejudos
 * Robert Mapplethorpe
 * Chuck Arnett

Organizations
The leather scene has thrived on its organizations and clubs, from informal networks in the 1940s and motorcycle clubs in the 1950s and 1960s to today's organizations focused on information and education.

Particularly in the early days, motorcycle clubs were central social hubs, which not only provided a community for like-minded men, but also inconspicuous covers for the first BDSM associations. Pioneering motorcycle clubs formed in Los Angeles, namely the Satyrs Motorcycle Club (1954) and Oedipus Motorcycle Club in Los Angeles, which split from the Satyrs in 1958. Early San Francisco clubs included the Warlocks (1960) and the California Motor Club.

In Chicago, the first club was Second City Motorcycle Club (1965), with Chuck Renslow as its first president. It built the foundation for Chicago Hellfire Club (1971), which had the express purpose of facilitating BDSM sex and has been sponsoring Inferno since 1976. In New York City gay motorcycle clubs developed later than in California: Empire City MC (1964) was the first gay motorcycle club in New York, followed by the New York Motorbike Club (1967) and Cycle MC (1968).

In Europe, the first Leather Club was the Sixty Nine Club (1965) in London, other early european leather clubs include Senses (1969) in UK, MS Amsterdam (1970) and MSC Rhein-Main Frankfurt  (1970),  Loge 70 (1973) in Switzerland, MSC London (1973) and MS Belgica (c. 1974) in Brussels. The European Confederation of Motorcycle Club (ECMC) was founded as first confederation of kink and leather clubs in Europe in 1974, with leatherman Felix Jones being an important figure in that development.

Early clubs in Sydney included the South Pacific Motor Club (SPMC).

In 1979 the first lesbian motorcycle club Dykes on Bikes was formed in San Francisco. It has been leading the San Francisco Pride Parade since its establishment. By the mid-1980s, lesbian motorcycle enthusiasts in other cities besides San Francisco began to form motorcycle clubs.

Over time more clubs were founded that were explicitly linked to leather and BDSM. These include Samois (1978-83) in San Francisco as the first lesbian BDSM organization in the US, Chicago Hellfire Club (1971), 15 Association in San Francisco, Eulenspiegel Society in New York and the Society of Janus in Chicago.

The Gay Male S/M Activists (GMSMA, 1981-2009) and the Lesbian Sex Mafia (LSM) were founded in 1981 in New York City. Both were commited to open enrollment, as well as a focus on education for newcomers. The principle of "safe, sane, consensual" (SSC) stems from GMSMA's environment.

There are leather clubs that are particularly committed to improving the rights of different marginalized groups within the leather scene through advocacy work and community building. The best known and most established is Onyx, which was founded 1995 for and by gay and bisexual BIPOC men. More recently, Proteus Leather Club was founded in Europe for and by trans and non-binary people in leather.

Bars, sex clubs and urban districts
Bars and clubs played a key role in the development of the gay leather scene, providing a gathering space for the community and a point of entry into the scene for newcomers, as well as turning leather into a consumable aesthetic and identity, often enforced by dress codes. They are considered the first distinct subgenre of gay bars, and with their characteristic visuals are often depicted as gay bars' most iconic form. Designated leather bars started appearing between the 1950s and 1960s in major cities, exploding in popularity in the 1970s. Usually, leather bars were found in industrial and working-class city neighborhoods, like South of Market in San Francisco and the Manhattan Meatpacking District. Many major cities around the world had or have leather bars and clubs, and in some cases a concentration of these associated a particular district with the leather scene, with the most well known being the "Miracle Mile" on Folsom Street in San Francisco.

Dozens of leather bars are named "Eagle" or some variant thereof; although they are independently owned, these Eagle bars share a focus on leather, kink, and masculinity.

Leather districts include:
 * Amsterdam: the Cockring (now closed) and Eagle bars and Warmoesstraat street — noting the closing of most of the leather bars once here, newspaper Het Parool stated in 2015 that "the darkroom has been consigned to history because of Grindr". On Warmoesstraat, the first leather bar in the country opened around 1955.
 * Berlin: Scheune (bar), Tom's Bar, both on Motzstraße, New Action on Kleiststraße and the area around Nollendorfplatz
 * Chicago: The Gold Coast, GayLife newspaper, Man's Country bathhouse and the Chicago Eagle all were located on a street block of Clark Street (from Ainslie to Winnemac).
 * New York City: the sexclubs Mineshaft (1976-85) and Anvil (1974-85) in the Meatpacking District.
 * San Francisco: the LGBTQ and Leather Cultural District covers the area which traditionally has had a concentration of leather bars and clubs, among others Fe-Be's, SF Eagle, The Stud, The Ramrod and the In Between.
 * Mexico City: in the gay-friendly Condesa neighbourhood, Tom's Leather Bar serves special nights for the Mexican leather community since 1995.

Museums, archives, & libraries
Many LGBT museums, archives and libraries collect material relating to leather communities, with many holding substantial collections, including the Australian Queer Archives in Melbourne and the Leather Archives and Museum in Chicago.

In 1991 Chuck Renslow and Tony DeBlase founded the Leather Archives and Museum “as a community archives, library, and museum of Leather, kink, fetish, and BDSM history and culture.” Renslow and DeBlase founded the museum in response to the AIDS crisis, during which the leather community's history and belongings were frequently lost or intentionally suppressed and discarded.

In 2005 Viola Johnson started The Carter-Johnson Leather Library, "a non-profit [501(c)(3) pending] organization that consists of a traveling collection of thousands of books, magazines, posters, art, club and event pins, newspapers, event programs and ephemera showing leather, fetish, S/M erotic history."

Official recognition
The LGBTQ and Leather Cultural District was created in the South of Market (SoMa) neighborhood of San Francisco in 2018. It includes the San Francisco South of Market Leather History Alley, with four works of art, which opened in 2017: the four works of art are: A black granite stone etched with a narrative by Gayle Rubin, an image of the "Leather David" statue by Mike Caffee, a reproduction of Chuck Arnett's 1962 mural that was in the Tool Box (a gay leather bar), engraved standing stones that honor community leather institutions (one being the Folsom Street Fair), leather pride flag pavement markings through which the stones emerge, and bronze bootprints along the curb which honor 28 people who were an important part of the leather communities of San Francisco.

On May 25, 2018, the Chicago City Council voted to designate a stretch of Clark Street in Uptown (between Winnemac Ave and Ainslie Ave) as "CHUCK RENSLOW WAY." Renslow founded numerous leather and LGBT institutions, many of which were once located on Clark St, including the Gold Coast bar and Man's Country bathhouse. The city unveiled the new street sign during the anniversary of the International Mr. Leather competition that Renslow founded.

Events

The Folsom Street Fair, begun in 1984, is an annual BDSM and leather subculture street fair held in September, that caps San Francisco's "Leather Pride Week". The Folsom Street Fair, sometimes simply referred to as "Folsom", takes place on Folsom Street between 8th and 13th Streets, in San Francisco's South of Market district. The event is California's third-largest single-day, outdoor spectator event and the world's largest leather event and showcase for BDSM products and culture. Folsom Street Events now organizes many events each year including Folsom Europe.

Other large events include Easter in Berlin (the largest leather event in Europe), International Mr. Leather and Mister Leather Europe, and Amsterdam Leather Pride (see Wikipedia article in Dutch).

Competitions
Many leather bars and organizations hold annual pageant competitions, some of which serve as feeder competitions for larger regional, national, or international competitions such as International Mr. Leather and Mister Leather Europe. The following table includes a non-exhaustive list of past and present leather competitions:

Representation in Popular Culture
The film Cruising (1980), directed by William Friedkin and starring Al Pacino, represents a paradigm shift in the treatment of gay sexuality in Hollywood. It is based on the novel Cruising (1970) by Gerald Walker and explores the world of men's leather subculture within the context of a murder mystery. It aimed to bring aspects of the men's leather subculture to a wider audience, showcasing different elements and practices associated with the community. At the same time, it provided outrageous insights into gay leather sexuality to satisfy curiosity of the heterosexual mainstream society. Homosexual desire and violence were presented as two sides of the same coin. Some scenes are set at the Mineshaft (although filming took place in the Hellfire Club ), with extras recruited from the Mineshaft's patrons. Among other things, the movie features a fisting scene. The filming in 1979 massively hindered by protests from the gay community.

A band associated with leather culture is Village People, which began in 1977. According to Jack Fritscher, Jacques Morali drew his inspiration for the four characters of Village People from the gay BDSM leather bar and sex club the Mineshaft's dress code. Glenn Hughes, the original leather biker of the group, frequently attended there. He sported an extravagant horseshoe moustache and wore his trademark leather outfit on and off stage. As he was the band's "biker" and a real-life fanatic, he kept his motorcycle parked inside his home. Eric Anzalone was the Leatherman/Biker of Village People from 1995 to 2017, replacing original member Glenn. However, Glenn continued with management of the band. During his later years, he was known for storming the streets of New York City with his custom Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Glenn, who was also referred to by the masses as "Leatherman", was named on People Magazine's 1979 list of most beautiful people.

Distinct aspects of heavy metal fashion can be credited to various bands, but the band that takes the most credit for revolutionizing the look is Judas Priest, primarily with its singer, Rob Halford, who openly identifies as gay and wears black leather. Halford wore a leather costume on stage as early as 1978 to coincide with the promotion for the Killing Machine (Hell Bent for Leather in the United States) album. In a 1998 interview, Halford described the leather subculture as the inspiration for this look. Shortly after appropriating the leather look, Halford started appearing onstage on a roaring motor bike. Soon, the rest of the band followed.

In the late 1970s, many fans of Judas Priest, AC/DC and Meat Loaf began imitating the clothing of leathermen due to the association of such fashions with toughness. Typical heavy metal fashions in the UK, US and Australia included leather battle jackets, combat boots, studded belts, and black leather jackets like the Schott Perfecto.

Freddie Mercury of Queen began incorporating leather into his stage costumes during the band's 1978 News of the World Tour. By their 1979 Jazz Tour, Mercury was wearing a full leather outfit, which he explained was inspired by clubs he frequented. Leather jackets, trousers, and accessories would feature prominently in his wardrobe for the rest of his touring career.

Joan Jett has a leather pride sticker prominently displayed on her guitar.

The satirical mystery novel The Killer wore Leather (2013) by Laura Antoniou is about the murder of a leather titleholder during an international leather convention (fictional event based on IML).

title: Leather subculture