User talk:RYP

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[edit] Robert Young Pelton

I did a pretty big edit to the Robert Young Pelton and before you go and revert it, I want to explain what I did and why I did it. The changes I made were in the interest of making this article conform to the general look and feel of the other biographies of living persons we have here on Wikipedia. First off, I took out the book reviews section. I have no objection to one review of your current work being there, but having review after review is not generally allowed on biographical articles and runs counter to the WP:VAIN guidelines. While I was add it I removed the (vandalism?) about your moustache and some of the personal info about the "The Black Flag Cafe". I'd like to see some citations for the 2 quotes I left in (and tagged it as such). If they are online and you send me the URLs, I will fix it up. Secondly, I removed the links from the Bibliography because linking every book you have to it's Amazon.com listing is going to be seen as an attempt to use Wikipedia for your own marketing purposes and is generally frowned upon. I also removed a vast majority of the external links section. Again, if you look at other contemporary articles on writers and jounalists, most have a handful of links. I rather arbitrarily picked the links I left on there, but if you have 5-6 external links that support the statements in the article, it would be fine to include them. Linking to a huge number of your works is not in line with the general practice here and again, might be seen as a misuse of Wikipedia's resources. Please don't take any of this personally... I don't know you, nor am I in any way affiliated with the other user you appear to be having some sort of issue with. My only interest is making sure this article is verifiable, is not an advertisement, and conforms to accepted style and content guidelines. This is not in any way related to the Articles for Deletion discussion that is currently going on (other than the fact that I became aware of this article because it is on AfD... I have not participated in the discussion there). If I wanted this article deleted, I wouldn't be taking the time to edit it. If you have any questions, feel free to post them on my user page. Regards,--Isotope23 19:36, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

Hey, first off... me contacting Mr. Cahill directly isn't really an option because that would go against the no original research policies (one of the "big 3" policies around Wikipedia). I'm not going to remove that statement right now, but it needs to be attributed and neither I nor any other editor can contact the source for independent verification. I'm betting that sounds rather daft to a journalist, but the point is that sources need to be readily available for all to see; this avoids a situation where one editor says he has "confirmed" a fact but that confirmation is not readily available for everyone to see.

As for your listing continually changing... yes that will happen. Wikipedia is a fairly dynamic thing and articles are rarely static... and unfortunately vandalism is part of that. Articles are routinely edited boldy (or mercilessly depending on your point of view). My biggest problem with the number of links is that it is not in line with other biographical articles here at Wikipedia. As for a link to your website, that is perfectly fine... as are a handful of external links... Please bear in mind, I'm not trying to be the gatekeeper or final authority of the content on your article; I'm just another editor trying to make Wikipedia into a decent and useful resource. If the links I chose are not the links you think best represent your work, then by all means change them. I just want to avoid having 71 links, because - trust me on this - you will see alot more claims of "spam" on this article if you have a huge "linkfarm" at the end. As for the Nat Geo articles... I don't have any strong objection to having them linked, so I've restored them. I just removed it wholesale because I find it easier to start from scratch than try and pick through a huge amount of info. On the Amazon links, generally Books by an author are not externally linked and are only linked internally if they have an article in Wikipedia. Whether or not you make any money off of these books, there may be a perception of attempting to use Wikipedia for profit. Beyond that, it encourages the next person that comes along and see's the article to start adding external links to their books... which is a particular problem with people who vanity publish. I assume the people who come to Wikipedia can navigate over to Amazon if they are interested in your work and search on the titles from teh areticle... I think I covered all your comments... let me know if I missed anything.--Isotope23 20:23, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for your comments. I understand all that but I also look at Wikipedia as a place where people come to get clear, unbiased and free information. I understand the "too many links" idea but I also know that Wikipedia is itself made out links...so you have quite a conundrum. If editors cannot leave cyberspace and enter reality to contact a prime source to confirm something then you are relying on second sources, so technically I am that second hand source or you can look at the cover of the book on Amazon or google it from any number of review etc etc. I could just link it to Amazon or my site as proof but that would get it deleted.

But more importantly, have a look at Paris Hilton's listing and tell me which entry is of more use and benefit to people using the internet to research useful information. Which listing should be more in depth? One that attracts people by virtue of name recognition and then sends them to free, in depth sources that provide safety advice or one that plugs Paris' latest single? I hope the effort you expend (for free) is comensurate with the value that is delivered to the users of Wikipedia.

This entire excercise started with a 14 year old spammer throwing three of the available monkey wrenches into a simple review with extensive outside links. There was no clean up, photo added, organization or culling just a well intentioned attempt to respond to the original claim but not to expand the usefulness. I endorse the idea of free information but I don't get why the format and listing was not enhanced or expanded...just chopped. I appreciate the work on the book listings but unless there are ISBNs' publishers, etc it doesnt provide much value considering the amount of content Amazon provides for free.

In any case I would like to get the three silly headers off my listing and see what happens.

RYP

[edit] Excerpt from LTK on my scratchpad

That page with the text is intended to be a temporary placeholder until I can incorporate the information for the Billy Waugh article. I just hadn't gotten around to it yet, and don't always have my copy of Licenced to Kill on hand. No copyvio was intended. Alcarillo 23:16, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

If you are indeed Robert Young Pelton, would you mind confirming through the email I sent you? It regards asking permission to repost the aforementioned text on my user page's testing area. Thanks. Alcarillo 18:49, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

From your contribution and edits to my scratchpad page:

You may contact me for permission to reprint excerpts at ryp@comebackalive.com

I'm still awaiting a response. Thanks. Alcarillo 22:20, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

I need to confirm who I am?... Dude, I am not the one hiding behind an alias. I don't have an email from you in my inbox but you have my name and email above. RYP

I'll resend it. Alcarillo 03:30, 16 May 2007 (UTC)

It's an email with the domain mypacks.net Alcarillo 03:34, 16 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Galkin case

You just left a notice in article Blowing up Russia: Terror from within. So, what exactly do you want me to do? Note that Galkin case is now described in articles Russian apartment bombings and Aleksey Galkin (that last one is terrible); and I deleted this recently from GRU article. You are welcome to edit anything yourself.Biophys 22:44, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

Hi Biophys Its important when evidence is produced to allege that a democratically elected country orders the destruction of apartment buildings that the evidence presented has provenance. To simply present my interview with Galkin without mentioning who, what, where why etc is counterproductive. Its also important to note that the Publisher neither asked, nor did I agree to let them use my interview. They have been unresponsive in my request to delete or even credit my interview with Galkin.

The editing of this entry makes it sound as if Galkin was tortured or did not want to talk. Thats not true. I had the same BS when I interviewed John Walker Lindh. If you read about my interview in "Three Worlds Gone Mad' you will see that not only was he willing but he was watching Chuck Norris movies with the rest of the rebels after my interview.

A point that I make frequently is that people find it hard that Putin ordered the destruction of apartments in Russia by blowing them up from below yet had no qualms killing Russians in Grozny by blowing up their apartments from above. I was with the old, blind and infirmed Russians he ordered his army to kill. So I don't find Galkin's revelations to be shocking at all.

- RYP -