User talk:TheFamilyJoels

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Gary Coleman

Hi Joel,

I wanted to respond to your message about my reversion of your edits to Gary Coleman. If you say that Gary has been a fixture in the gaming community for years, I'll take your word for it. I also believe you if you tell me he plays Counter-Strike very well, and that he autographed your friend's Diff'rent Strokes DVD.

But Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not a collection of personal anecdotes. And I'm afraid that what you added was an anecdote:

Coleman is known to frequent lan centers in the LA County area to play the popular vide game Counter-Strike. It is unknown if he is affiliated with any team, but some eye witnesses have reported that he is very skilled at the game. A report of one such instance is posted here

If you can find a news article that mentions that Gary Coleman is an avid gamer, or that he frequents lan centers, a similar paragraph could be added:

A 2007 newspaper report says that Coleman is an avid gamer who frequents lan centers in the LA County area to play the popular vide game Counter-Strike. He is reported to be very skilled at the game.

Do you see the difference between the two? The first one is vague ("known to", "unknown", "some eye-witnesses"), and the second is specific ("a newspaper report").

Two other things. First, Wikipedia policy, which is printed under the edit box, says "If you don't want your material to be edited mercilessly or redistributed by others, do not submit it." In other words, please understand that something you think is very important may be deleted by somebody who thinks it's not important — somebody who may or may not share the same background as you (in other words, somebody who may not be a gamer). And somebody else may see that I deleted it and put it back. That's the way Wikipedia works.

Finally, if you want to leave a comment for me, please put it on my talk page, not my user page. Thanks. — Malik Shabazz | Talk 06:53, 12 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]