User talk:AlexandreJ/Srila Prabhupada: The Prominent Link

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[edit] Some comments and suggestions

The article at User:Alexander/Srila Prabhupada: The Prominent Link looks much better, but I would suggest making some further improvements before attempting to move it back to mainspace. Some issues and suggestions:

  • Sources: All of the citations seem to be website related with ISCKON movement, and as far as I can see all of them (except [1]) are only "unofficially" affiliated with the organization. Is that true ? If so they are unlikely to be considered reliable sources for wikipedia. Are there any reviews of the book published in academic journals, mainstream newspaper/magazines, books from reputable publishers etc ?
  • Formatting:
    • Add the {{Infobox Book}} to the page.
    • The citations need further details such as publisher, accessdate etc. I suggest that you use one of the citation templates, such as {{cite web}}, {{cite book}} etc, since it makes it easy to add in all the known fields.

Incidentally, I would advice you to ignore the DRV, and not waste time and effort arguing with editors on that page. You time will be better spent improving the draft article, which can be moved to mainspace once we are sure it is significantly improved from the version that was deleted. Regards. Abecedare (talk) 23:37, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Thank you very much for making time and exerting energy to share these concrete suggestions with me for how I can improve the article.
The citations are websites attached to various Hare Krishna or Vaisnava groups, though not all of them are associated with the ISKCON organization. The difference between some of the various groups represented might be something like the difference between Baptists and Lutherans. Both Baptists and Lutherans are Christians, but they belong to different churches or denominations. It's like that with the websites that I've included. They all consider themselves "Hare Krishnas" or "Vaisnavas", but they belong to different groups or organizations. For example, the speaker of the two audio fies, Swami B. G. Narasingha is associated with a Vaisnava group called the "Sri Narasingha Chaitanya Matha".
The particular website that you reference and link to above is, as far as I know, unaffiliated with the ISKCON organization, and may even be considered more or less "heretical" by many members of the ISKCON organization. The website discusses and mentions the ISKCON organization, but seems to me to do so from the perspective of the marginal non-member. I've had some correspondence with an editor of that website, perhaps the primary editor.
Thank you for the additional clarification about what sorts of sources might be considered more reliable and impartial. What you've stated about the citation makes sense. For now I'm off to bed. --AlexandreJ (talk) 02:07, 25 March 2008 (UTC)
Thanks for the clarification about the affiliations of the websites. The main thing we need to consider is whether they are official websites of the respective movement or just a website run a group of people who share similar beliefs. In the former case (say akin to the official Roman Catholic Church's website), we can arguable use the site's content as a reliable source; in the latter case the website is no way different than a blog or yahoo group and cannot be cited. Does that make sense ? Abecedare (talk) 02:38, 25 March 2008 (UTC)
That makes sense to me. Thank you.--AlexandreJ (talk) 21:57, 25 March 2008 (UTC)
FYI, when you look for new references related to your project you might want to check them with Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard. This is a location where you can "vet" your potential sources. Also, you might want to check the sources that you are presently using - personally I feel it was the lack of reliability of your old sources that led to the article being deleted. New sources, checked with the Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard might help your project more. Happy editing. Thanks. Ism schism (talk) 22:58, 25 March 2008 (UTC)
Thank you for the information. --AlexandreJ (talk) 00:49, 26 March 2008 (UTC)