User talk:216.179.123.145

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Contents

[edit] Valerie Wilson

Hello. I must say, I'm a bit puzzled by your persistent efforts to change the entry on Ms. Wilson. Your history seems to be that of a responsible editor, with regular interest in lottery issues. (I thought your edits to Rebecca Paul were well-advised, and I hope you can continue to improve that article, to which I could only devote a limited amount of time.) But with this stuff on Valerie Wilson, I just don't get it. The news was carried on CNN, other US networks, even the BBC! It was a pretty unexpected thing, and worthy of mentioning.

Your choice of words—that is, to break her prize down into the way it will be awarded—misses the point. As both citations indicate, she won a $1,000,000 jackpot. The fact that it is broken up like this is not at all unusual. Whenever—as I'm sure you know, as an apparent lottophile—someone whens a big jackpot, they never get a check for the amount mentioned in the news. If they win even $100,000,000, they're either going to get the total amount broken up over the course of twenty or more years, or (as seems increasingly common), they will get a one-time check for much less (having been reduced both by taxes and by the rules which lower the winnings if not taken as an annuity).

The point is, there is nothing deceitful in referring to Ms. Wilson as a person who won a million-dollar prize twice. Because that's exactly what happened. I am curious as to what your take is on this. Unschool 19:07, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

I live in NY state; I delivered lottery magazines for over 8 1/2 years. Since NY retired "Tax-Free Million" in 2000, there has not been a "true" million-dollar scratch prize offered by the NY Lottery. Tax-Free Million was lump-sum; the check (after withholdings) was for exactly $1 million, so the actual prize was more than $1.5 million.
NO lottery/sweepstakes etc winner should ever be forced to receive annuity payments. Ms Wilson, in both cases, was forced to receive her "million-dollar" prize in 20 annual payments. Since she was already being paid through an annuity; IMO it made no sense for her to play for another annuity. She should be trying her luck on Mega Millions, which has a cash option. For whatever reason, NY allows the cash/annuity choice on Mega Millions, but not on its scratch games.
Annuity-only prizes should be boycotted (including "lifetime" prizes).
BTW the cash value is not "less" than the annuity; the lump sum represents the present-day value of future money (ie inflation). 216.179.123.145 13:51, 9 May 2007 (UTC)
Sorry, I made my comments over on Valerie Wilson before seeing your comments here.
So from what I gather here, you simply dislike annuities. A very respectable opinion, I have no problem with that. But when you state, "NO lottery/sweepstakes etc winner should ever be forced to receive annuity payments," I am quite puzzled. No one should be forced to play the lottery, but, once you decide to play, hey—those are the rules. Look, I believe that the slam-dunk has almost ruined professional basketball (and truly would have destroyed it, had the three-point shot not been introduced). But do I have the right to complain after I buy my ticket that the game would be better if they made the slam-dunk illegal? Of course not. That's the game that I paid for, and that's the way it is. Period.
You say that Ms. Wilson should have been playing another game. I say, it's her bloody choice! Who are you and I to tell her that she played the wrong game? I'm guessing she's happy that she played the game she played, and it's pretty arrogant to tell her that she played the wrong game. Oh, I'm quite sure that your analysis of the merits of each game is correct—I'm willing to acknowledge you as an expert on lotteries (oh, and by the way, thanks for that explanation of the reduced size of the cash winnings—I never understood that), but I am not willing to grant you the power to say what I or Ms. Wilson or Mr. Whipple should do.
I think you are clearly engaged (though perhaps unintentionally) a personal campaign to "clean up" the language on lotteries as used in Wikipedia. My friend, that is not your place. Both the prohibitions on POV and OR apply here. You need to keep your personal campaign out of this; your passion for the subject is blinding you to the POV that you are imposing. I ask you to take a step back, and let some of us who (frankly) don't give a damn about the subject offer a small amount of constructive criticism.
I'm not going to revert this minute. I'd like to give you a chance to respond. Talk to you tomorrow. Unschool 16:43, 9 May 2007 (UTC)
I've placed these comments over on the Valerie Wilson page, so that the whole discussion is taking place at one location, instead of two or three. Look forward to your comments. Unschool 15:05, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] June 2007

Welcome to Wikipedia. It might not have been your intention, but your recent contribution removed content from Talk:Win For Life. Please be more careful when editing articles and do not remove content from Wikipedia without a good reason, which should be specified in the edit summary. Take a look at the welcome page to learn more about contributing to this encyclopedia. If you would like to experiment again, please use the sandbox. Thank you. A link to the edit I have reverted can be found here: link. If you believe this edit should not have been reverted, please contact me. The Sunshine Man 14:57, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] December 2007

Welcome to Wikipedia. Although everyone is welcome to make constructive contributions to Wikipedia, at least one of your recent edits, such as the one you made to Oregon Lottery, did not appear to be constructive and has been reverted or removed. Please use the sandbox for any test edits you would like to make, and take a look at the welcome page to learn more about contributing to this encyclopedia. Thank you. Katr67 (talk) 18:28, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Please refrain from making unconstructive edits to Wikipedia, as you did to Judd Gregg. Your edits appear to constitute vandalism and have been reverted. If you would like to experiment, please use the sandbox. Thank you. Katr67 (talk) 18:30, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Please stop. If you continue to vandalize Wikipedia, as you did to Win For Life, you will be blocked from editing. Katr67 (talk) 18:31, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] April 2008

Welcome to Wikipedia. Although everyone is welcome to make constructive contributions to Wikipedia, at least one of your recent edits, such as the one you made to Organic food, did not appear to be constructive and has been automatically reverted by ClueBot. Please use the sandbox for any test edits you would like to make, and take a look at the welcome page to learn more about contributing to this encyclopedia. If you believe there has been a mistake and would like to report a false positive, please report it here and then remove this warning from your talk page. If your edit was not vandalism, please feel free to make your edit again after reporting it. The following is the log entry regarding this warning: Organic food was changed by 216.179.123.145 (u) (t) making a minor change with obscenities on 2008-04-10T19:55:44+00:00 . Thank you. ClueBot (talk) 19:55, 10 April 2008 (UTC)