Talk:James D. Macdonald

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[edit] Notability

What has this person actually written? I'm not seeing posting to web sites and Usenet as being notable. Avt tor 23:48, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

Well, for one thing, Yog's Law is a frequently cited statement that he originated. Atlanta Nights is also a notable project he masterminded, which attracted a fair amount of media attention.

I've also added details of one of his novels that was an award winner. It's far from his only novel, but it's hard to find many of them because a lot of his work is released under pseudonyms. JulesH 09:56, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

"proud" is a red flag of POV material. Remember that any fact which is noteworthy should be verifiable. This article needs non-encyclopedic material removed and some of its pertinent elements sourced. The article might be useful if it had information about pseudonyms and published works.Avt tor 15:30, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

Macdonald is a prolific genre writer under his own name and under a variety of pseudonyms; see http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?James_D._Macdonald for his SF/F bibliography. This article was originally a thinly veiled attack on his online activities, but it has been toned down considerably. I am not sure his online presence is of encyclopedic interest. Perhaps we could replace that whole section with his biblio? Ahasuerus 16:55, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

I disagree. If you read interviews with Macdonald, it's his activities in educating other writers that are the main thing people talk to him about. E.g. [1][2]. JulesH 20:13, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

These sources only prove the subject's area of interest, not notability. Avt tor 23:04, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

I was under the impression that notability is usually considered to exist wherever multiple independent reliable sources have commented on a subject, which is clearly the case here. JulesH 00:59, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

The existence of Atlanta Nights does not make someone involved with it separately notable. Saying Atlanta nights is notable is an argument to redirect this article to that one. If people think he's notable separately, then come up with something to show that.

And even if the notability can be established, this article reads like a vanity wankfest of nonnotable self-promotional material. Ooooh, he writes for someone else's blog, big deal. DreamGuy 19:50, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

DreamGuy, he wasn't just involved with it, he organized the whole thing. Wouldn't you think that being able to talk that many published authors into joining in a hoax might just indicate some degree of notability?--SarekOfVulcan 20:44, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Rewrite

I am in agreement with DreamGuy; though I wouldn't have thrown out words like 'travesty', it was poorly sourced and really peculiarly phrased. I've done a complete rewrite, cited things, noted why he is of note, linked to the things that he is also known for that merit being on wikipedia.

I work part time at a science fiction bookstore (I'm mostly a web developer), and while I don't know Macdonald personally, he did a signing at the store last fall, and we took a picture. I do the website, and I have it in the stuff on the spare drive at the store. I took it, so I'll release it and upload it later. --Thespian 02:49, 20 June 2007 (UTC)