Talk:Dothan, Alabama/Archive 1

July 2003
Wondering how to edit this U.S. City Entry?

The WikiProject U.S. Cities standards might help. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rambot (talk • contribs) 00:55, 28 July 2003 (UTC)

September 2005
You know, I'm really glad someone took the time to make this. --Nathand42 23:08, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Civil Rights???
Does anyone know anything about Dothan's civil rights movement?? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 65.0.182.13 (talk) 04:34, 20 December 2006 (UTC).

Dothan is a post-bellum town, unlike most of Alabama. The two high schools were quickly integrated in 1968 immediately upon the Supreme Court rulings, with little protest: all groups and organizations were preserved in the merger. The quick success of athletics overrode other concerns. Dothan has such an influx of people from other places, that by 1978 when the city added a second high school and fully integrated elementary schools, there were no protests. Bussing was not a big deal, as Dothan had no bus service for its schools until the late 70's, and it first appeared *after* integration. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.111.163.179 (talk) 19:35, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

January 2007
In reading this, I get a strong feeling that a lot of this was copied right out of a tourist brochure. Which is plagiarism, and is, of course, not permitted under Wikipedia rules. If it was found that it was plagiarized, it would have to be removed. Slater79 03:42, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
 * You are correct. I have removed the plagiarized information, and replaced it with originally-composed material referenced to several different websites (at least in the history section; it's definitely a "work in progress"). - Ecjmartin (talk) 17:53, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

January 2007 II
It should be mentioned that the 'segregation' apparently so rampant in Dothan is not present in the school system, and (when referring to residential segregation) is due primarily to the cost of the housing in that area. 68.59.64.116 08:33, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

NPOV
There's some serious work needed to clean this up. We need references for the claims made and need to be careful about POV language. I rated this as start because there is little about government, transportation. More is needed on the full history of the city. With these things it could be "b" class — Preceding unsigned comment added by JodyB (talk • contribs) 23:26, 27 April 2007 (UTC)
 * I've tried to address these concerns; let me know what you think now. - Ecjmartin (talk) 19:14, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

People Of Dothan
I'm deleting this section. That section had been tagged with "Cite Sources" for a long period of time, some for nearly a year.Reinoe (talk) 15:51, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

"In 2007, a man from Dothan named Steven was one of the men on the MTV show, A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila.[2]" LOL - Is this really relevant??????? -Laikalynx (talk) 22:26, 5 August 2008 (UTC)
 * I'm from Dothan, and my name is Stephen! :O  But seriously, no, it is not relevant.  Elecbullet (talk) 02:41, 31 March 2009 (UTC)
 * I trimmed out some of these entries, then restored the others. I didn't see why the more notable names should have been removed, but I could understand cutting out the others.  If anyone disagrees, please feel free to revert or otherwise edit the section; otherwise, I felt the names I left (Bill Baxley, various actors, athletes and businesspersons) were notable enough to merit retention.  But that's just my opinion here, as I said, please feel free to edit or revert if you don't agree! - Ecjmartin (talk) 03:28, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

Tax burden
"This means residents of Houston County have the lowest tax burden of anyone in the Western world." Assuming they pay US federal income tax, which is considerably higher than several other western countries, this is of course completely wrong. If someone has the information, can anyone edit this to say "of the US" or whatever is correct? Andremul (talk) 07:32, 17 May 2008 (UTC)

Expansion and rework
I have expanded, rearranged and edited this article in an effort to provide more information, make it more readable, remove directly plagiarized material (especially in the history section), and most of all to pay what I felt was an appropriate tribute to the local "big city" that I knew as a boy growing up in Daleville (and Slocomb, briefly) during the '70's and '80's.  I've lived in Kansas City for the past twenty years, but I still miss "L.A." and think of the Wiregrass (and Alabama in general) often (I especially miss the pines--don't have many out this way!) I hope it reads better now, is more informative, and is acceptable to all. - Ecjmartin (talk) 05:39, 27 April 2009 (UTC)

Vandalism
Recently edits have been made to this article from two different ISP's inserting Dain L. Kelly as Mayor of Dothan, and also inserting other untrue and/or unsubstantiated material into this article. Since I can't comment on your talk page (whoever you are), as you don't have one, I will ask you here to please stop your vandalism of this article. Multiple searches on Yahoo and Google do not reveal any Dain Kelly as mayor of Dothan, or otherwise. Please desist from further vandalism of this page. Thank you. - Ecjmartin (talk) 13:58, 8 July 2009 (UTC)

Self-published
"Self-published sources" are those that are published by an individual or group. They need not be published by the "speaker" being quoted. For example, on my site, I have many quotes. If someone pulls one of my Abraham Lincoln quotes, and uses it in Wikipedia, and cites my site as a source... the site fails because the source is self-published. I am not a wp:reliable source for quotes of Abraham Lincoln. Hope that helps.- sinneed (talk) 20:12, 9 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Well, that's not exactly what "self-published" means, but OK. You're right that your website would not be a reliable source for a Lincoln quote, but it might well be reliable for other information. The website in question collects historical and other documents, and I have little reason to doubt the account of the riot (and I wonder if you had a look at the source that was there before I started editing this article). Tompkins was a lawyer, and this supposed talk--a collection of anecdotes, to some extent--supposedly was prepared for the state bar association. I have no reason to doubt the veracity of the account of the Dothan riots, or of the honorable intentions of the website publishing this particular document. In the next section of the article, however, a claim was made that Dothan was the biggest naval store in the world; for that kind of a claim I would not trust this kind of source, and I have removed the statement and the reference. I hope other editors agree that for this particular claim the source given should be deemed trustworthy enough. Thank you, Drmies (talk) 21:16, 9 August 2009 (UTC)
 * You are entirely right, and the confusion is due to my error, entirely. The problem is that I didn't wikilink to the Wikipedia meaning of wp:verifiability.- sinneed (talk) 21:56, 9 August 2009 (UTC)
 * But do we agree that the source, in this case, can be deemed reliable? Thanks, Drmies (talk) 22:06, 9 August 2009 (UTC)
 * I don't, but you don't need my approval. I would think you should wait a bit, see if the flag prods someone into finding a source, or coming up with information that clarifies things. But I won't reverse you again if you take it out.I found 2 books with the initial guilty verdict and the successful appeal, but the 2nd trial, if any, doesn't seem to have hit the scanners yet, if its records even still exist.  I put in just one, as it seems quite reliable.- sinneed (talk) 22:28, 9 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Nice! Drmies (talk) 22:32, 9 August 2009 (UTC)
 * I love google books search. They are chewing through old libraries at a steady pace.  The sheer volume of human experience being preserved is amazing.  Sorry wp:talk and I am wandering from the purpose of the page.  I see a possible hit in the news archives, his possible obit, but there is a fee and I am not *that* interested. :)- sinneed (talk) 22:48, 9 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Tell me where it is; I have JSTOR and all that. I think the guy might deserve an article anyway--if the obit is long enough, and in a big enough paper, then he would pass WP:GNG, and we might get a nice DYK out of it. (BTW, as you may have seen, my basic project is to clean up this article and moved all the references into templates, occasionally improving one or more of em). Drmies (talk) 22:59, 9 August 2009 (UTC)
 * It appears to be from a later generation... death was in 1990, and this is the search. *IF* and that is a big if, I am seeing the same thing I found before.  People make (justifiable) fun of my search skills.- sinneed (talk) 23:05, 9 August 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, not our guy... Drmies (talk) 01:32, 10 August 2009 (UTC)
 * This is our guy. Drmies (talk) 02:50, 10 August 2009 (UTC)