User talk:Terraplane

Hi Terraplane, welcome to wikipedia. this is mostly in response to your edits and remarks at the hank williams article. wikipedia verifiability guidelines demand that published sources can be cited for claims made- see Wikipedia:Verifiability and Wikipedia:No original research. an extract from verifiability somewhat relevant to your situation-

A good way to look at the distinction between verifiability and truth is with the following example. Suppose you are writing a Wikipedia entry on a famous physicist's Theory X. Theory X has been published in peer-reviewed journals and is therefore an appropriate subject for a Wikipedia article. However, in the course of writing the article, you meet the physicist, and over a beer, he tells you: "Actually, I think Theory X is a load of rubbish." Even though you have this from the author himself, you cannot include the fact that he said it in your Wikipedia entry.

Why not? Because it is not verifiable in a way that would satisfy the Wikipedia readership or other editors. The readers don't know who you are. You can't include your telephone number so that every reader in the world can call you directly for confirmation. And even if they could, why should they believe you?

For the information to be acceptable to Wikipedia, you would have to persuade a reputable news organization to publish your story first, which would then go through a process similar to peer review. It would be checked by a reporter, an editor, perhaps by a fact-checker, and if the story were problematic, it would be checked further by the lawyers and the editor-in-chief. These checks and balances exist to ensure that only accurate and fair stories appear in the newspaper . . . .

. . . If the newspaper published the story, you could then include the information in your Wikipedia entry, citing the newspaper article as your source.

so i don't doubt that you are an eyewitness to all that actually went down, but unfortunately, it doesn't matter as far as wikipedia is concerned. i'd recomend you do some research and find published accounts of the things you are saying, so you can then add the edits you'd like to add.

oh, and please don't call people names! this will not win you any friends around here and is considered very bad etiquette.

the official welcome message, with some useful links:

Welcome!

Hello, Terraplane, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers:

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Where to ask a question, ask me on my talk page, or place {{helpme}} on your talk page and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Again, welcome!

--Heah ^talk 16:28, 1 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]