Re: Newly created Wikipedia article on Andreas Raab is

About a year ago I wrote a long article for Wikipedia.  I corrected some of the misinformation about Steve Fossett and his business interests.  I also added a lot more detail and color to the entry having worked with Steve for five years as his technology director.  

Well, someone 22 years old deleted everything I wrote and said it did not have enough citations.  As if a personal relationship was not enough.  I fear that a lot of the Wikipedia entries are like that.  

Do you remember the scene in Sleeper where Woody Allen answers questions about history?


Sincerely,

Joe.

On 18 January 2013 16:39, Joseph J Alotta <[hidden email]> wrote:
> About a year ago I wrote a long article for Wikipedia.  I corrected some of the misinformation about Steve Fossett and his business interests.  I also added a lot more detail and color to the entry having worked with Steve for five years as his technology director.
>
> Well, someone 22 years old deleted everything I wrote and said it did not have enough citations.  As if a personal relationship was not enough.  I fear that a lot of the Wikipedia entries are like that.

I'm afraid you misunderstand the nature of Wikipedia. It's not an
encyclopedia, which uses primary sources and subject experts. It's
more a "meta-encyclopedia", which uses secondary sources. If there are
no citations, as far as WP is concerned _it does not exist_.

Think of it this way: if you say something about someone you know
personally, how can a random stranger possibly verify your claim? But
if something's published in the New York Times, presumably someone
reputable has fact-checked the article. (Yeah, right.)

frank

> Do you remember the scene in Sleeper where Woody Allen answers questions about history?
>
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Joe.
>
>
>

Hi Joe,

It was certainly frustrating to have everything deleted on my first attempt.
Some of it for reasons that were clearly false.  One editor wrote, "don't
just write up everything. perhaps you missed some practica he did while in
High School".  I had one reference removed with a comment that said
"Japanese source, come on" even though there was an English translation at
the bottom.  Even if there wasn't I can't believe an editor would not take a
foreign language reference.  Reminds me of the quote from Steve Martin,  "I
feel sorry for the French, they have a different word for EVERYTHING"

I also had a reference deleted with a comment that the article didn't
mention Andreas.  A quick Ctrl-F is all it would have taken to find the
reference.  It's not like it was buried, it was in the first screen worth of
text!

I'm happy that that the page seems to have passed muster.  It is clean of
objections now.  

Again thank you everyone that helped edit the article!

Ron Teitelbaum


> -----Original Message-----
> From: [hidden email] [mailto:squeak-dev-
> [hidden email]] On Behalf Of Joseph J Alotta
> Sent: Friday, January 18, 2013 11:39 AM
> To: [hidden email]
> Subject: [squeak-dev] Re: Newly created Wikipedia article on Andreas Raab
is
>
> About a year ago I wrote a long article for Wikipedia.  I corrected some
of the
> misinformation about Steve Fossett and his business interests.  I also
added a lot
> more detail and color to the entry having worked with Steve for five years
as his
> technology director.
>
> Well, someone 22 years old deleted everything I wrote and said it did not
have
> enough citations.  As if a personal relationship was not enough.  I fear
that a lot