Talk:List of military special forces units

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Better way to reorganize this list visually?

For those who help maintain this article frequently (as well as any other viewers who may see this), I was thinking we could probably improve the readability of the article by converting the list entries into a standardized table format. Here's an example I'd suggest:

Special Forces Units
Nation	Service Branch	Parent Command	Unit
Lebanon	Lebanese Army Ground Forces	Lebanese Armed Forces Special Operations Command	Lebanese Commando Regiment (aka "Ranger Regiment")^[1]^[2]
Mexico	Mexican Army	Special Forces Corps^[3]	Special Reaction Force
	Mexican Navy^[4]		Amphibious Special Forces Group

refs

References

^ "Reports: Maroun al-Qobayati Replaces Roukoz as Commando Regiment Chief". naharnet.com. 8 October 2015. Archived from the original on 13 February 2018. Retrieved 2 August 2021.
^ "The United States Army SWCS". www.soc.mil. June 2012. Archived from the original on 15 April 2022. Retrieved 12 November 2022.
^ "Fuerzas Especiales, 'a la baja' en gobierno de Peña Nieto". unioncancun.mx. 6 May 2014. Archived from the original on 7 November 2017. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
^ "Los G.I. Joe mexicanos: La elite de la Marina". vanguardia.com.mx. 22 September 2015. Archived from the original on 28 October 2022. Retrieved 28 October 2022.

Thoughts? ⇒SWATJester ^{Shoot Blues, Tell VileRat!} 03:04, 9 February 2025 (UTC) ⇒SWATJester ^{Shoot Blues, Tell VileRat!} 03:04, 9 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

While I agree that tables can have benefits over lists in some contexts, I'm not sure this is one of them. On this page, it is basically a necessity to attach specific refs to specific units, as opposed to grouping them all in a single "refs" column cell, and on a table, that can look cluttered and messy. Also not sure that the generic column headings will work for every country, as some countries will require more sub-headings/additinal cells of their own. There will also very likely be a need for a good deal of grouped/merged cells in many of the countries as well. All this again takes away from a clean table look.

Additionally, this will all lead to a page with a good deal of wikitext, which is too complex for many of the single-use/low-use fly in/fly out ip-users that edit this page regularly, and will either lead to messes left behind in need of fixing, or excluding a large number of potential editors from contributing, (which I believe we're all supposed to be avoiding right now). Anyway, that's just my two cents on this, sorry about the length. - \\'cLf 08:26, 9 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

To be clear, I don't think refs should be in a separate column, they should be in-line within the same cell as the thing they're referencing. Within the table that actually looks quite clean (it's just the source-view wikimarkup that's a bit messy, but that's a problem with any ref and inherent to our markup language). Personally, I view an increased barrier of complexity to fly-in/fly-out IP users as a feature, not a bug, given how frequently those users are contributing unsourced or inaccurate content. You raise a valid point about some countries requiring additional sub-headings, but that's a solveable problem: basically it's only applicable to the "Parent command" in situations where there are multiple layers of parent command applicable, and in those cases we probably should be taking more of an editorial stance on picking and choosing the appropriate one. Alternatively, they could be combined into a single cell. So for instance, in the case of the U.S., we'd either decide to put USSOCOM as the parent command for all entries, or we'd put USASOC, AFSOC, NSW, etc. as appropriate, possibly with an explanatory footnote somewhere indicating that all of these fall under SOCOM. Regardless, it'd still be MUCH more readable and understandable than the current format, which requires readers to interpret what multiple layers of "*" indentation mean; not to mention that the current layout conflates parent units with child units (e.g. for Romania, as currently written it is ambiguous whether all of Direcţia Generală de Informaţii a Apărării is a special forces unit, or just the Special Detachment of Protection and Intervention.) ⇒SWATJester ^{Shoot Blues, Tell VileRat!} 18:24, 9 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

[1] "Reports: Maroun al-Qobayati Replaces Roukoz as Commando Regiment Chief". naharnet.com. 8 October 2015. Archived from the original on 13 February 2018. Retrieved 2 August 2021.

[2] "The United States Army SWCS". www.soc.mil. June 2012. Archived from the original on 15 April 2022. Retrieved 12 November 2022.

[3] "Fuerzas Especiales, 'a la baja' en gobierno de Peña Nieto". unioncancun.mx. 6 May 2014. Archived from the original on 7 November 2017. Retrieved 28 October 2022.

[4] "Los G.I. Joe mexicanos: La elite de la Marina". vanguardia.com.mx. 22 September 2015. Archived from the original on 28 October 2022. Retrieved 28 October 2022.

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