Talk:Bauhaus books + coffee

Blogs as references
A user removed some citations because they were published in blogs. I reinserted them. The issue is summarized at WP:BLOGS.

One of the blogs is published by Rose Tosti, a Seattle Weekly journalist. It is a coffee culture review blog. Here is Tosti's work at the Seattle Weekly. I think that the blog meets reliability requirements to critique the aesthetic of the coffeehouse since it is authored by a named person in the field of reviewing Seattle-area businesses and events.

Alex Garcia is a Seattle-area businessperson who also self-identifies on his blog and likewise is putting his community reputation at stake by publishing quality reviews.

I would like to assert that the material cited is not being questioned and that the authors have standing to give opinions on the matters being cited, and for those reasons, the citations should remain in place.  Blue Rasberry   (talk)   21:45, 27 November 2011 (UTC)


 * If Tosti is published in the field, that meets requirements. Alex Garcia is not. There's only one exception to the rule against self-published sources, and that is that the source is a published expert in the field. Published elsewhere by a third party. If you have some examples of published work by Garcia, I'll reconsider. Yworo (talk) 02:48, 28 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Garcia himself is a publisher and in the business of promoting companies - see here for example. The review he wrote about Bauhaus is on his personal website, and I presume he reviewed it just because he likes reviewing things and not because they paid him. Is this sufficient? I think I can pull more on him.   Blue Rasberry    (talk)   05:38, 28 November 2011 (UTC)
 * The link you provided is to an article about Garcia. What you need to show is that he has written articles on related topics which have been published by reliable third-party publishers. A book, a journal or magazine article, a newspaper column. If all of Garcia's reviews are self-published, then we cannot use him as a source. The specific exception is worded thusly at WP:SPS: "Self-published expert sources may be considered reliable when produced by an established expert on the topic of the article whose work in the relevant field has previously been published by reliable third-party publications." (emphasis added). Having published work in a relevant field is what makes someone an "established expert"; without it, regardless of their other qualifications, their blog is just like mine or yours, not a reliable source. In any case, it appears that his expertise is in promotion and marketing, not in writing neutral journalism or reviews. Of course, the linked article about Garcia could be used as a source for an article about him or his company, if there are other substantive sources to work from. Yworo (talk) 16:00, 28 November 2011 (UTC)
 * I am going to think about this.  Blue Rasberry    (talk)   21:28, 28 November 2011 (UTC)