User talk:Homedepotov

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Welcome to Wikipedia. I have noticed your numerous edits to the Casey Jones article. Please start using comments (in the "Edit summary" below the window where you add text) to identify what you are doing in the various edits. This is a great help to other editors when they look at the edit history, or when they see changes to the article show up in their watch list. This helps other editors know whether someone is just correcting spelling or punctuation versus making substantial changes. Thanks. Edison 14:13, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Re: Casey Jones

Sure, always glad to help. I've fixed the item you mentioned in your note to me. The first use of a reference needs to have the full citation (<ref name="Foo">Bar</ref>) while subsequent references to the same work can use the short form (<ref name="Foo" />). More complete documentation is on the Wikipedia:Footnotes page. Slambo (Speak) 17:22, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

The original ballad as well as other highly notable songs about Jones belong in the article about him. The spin off and deletion was a mistake, since the labor union version, the World War 1 marching song, and the Grateful Dead song each satisfy WP:N, as does the network TV series about him. Without the original ballad and the later versions, Casey Jones would be one of thousands who died bravely in industrial accidents in the late 19th and early 20th century, many of them just as heroically. Casey Jones is not a notable person who was also mentioned in the "popular culture" in the same way that someone might want various trivial references to, say "Benjamin Franklin in popular culture." Those articles have been deletion magnets. But his place in popular culture is all that preserved the fame and memory of that railroader. I agree that good arrangement of the material is important, and the location of the mention of the other song could certainly be improved. Edison (talk) 22:20, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

I agree that the "popular culture" approach of listing every cartoon character or video game which has some remote connection to him is undesirable. Popular culture articles are generally too broad and include trivial references which lack references from books and folklore journals. The original ballad should be described in the article, since it is what initially gave him nationwide fame. I will check a few paper encyclopedias to see what they mention in their articles about him. Some possibilities include, besides the original ballad, the US postage stamp, the IWW song, the WW1 marching song, the Disney cartoon, the 1957 TV series, and the Grateful Dead song. I do not feel that it is sufficient to have them accessible only via the disambiguation page, without inclusion on or links from the bio article. Since Wikipedia is not paper, we might wish to include some even if they are not in the probably very brief articles in paper encyclopedias. Edison (talk) 22:41, 8 February 2008 (UTC)