Talk:Tree That Owns Itself

Warning
This page has been dugg. Watch out for the vandals! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.47.245.142 (talk) 23:46, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Legend
The story behind The Tree that Owns Itself is largely legend. No such deed was ever recorded in Athens/Clarke County -- and, if there had been, it would almost certainly not be recognized as valid. Also, I seem to recall reading that no one named Jackson ever owned the property in question. In my mind, the really wonderful part of the story is that, in spite of this, no one has ever formally questioned the tree's supposed ownership of the land. PurpleChez 17 April 2006 1:40PM
 * This has become apparent to me as well and yet I hadn't gotten around to clarifying this myself. I appreciate you taking the time to restructure the article to reflect this. bloodofox: 07:07, 20 October 2006 (UTC)
 * I've enjoyed doing it. I'm a local history geek. Did you take the pictures that appear in the article? They are great! The heavy blue-green color captures the feeling you get in that neighborhood when everything is nice and leafy. I was by the tree last Saturday (21 Oct) and acorns were falling like rain. I've got about fifty in soil at home, and a bowlful leftover, some of which are sprouting in the open air. Although I recognize that the tree cannot legally own anything, I loved getting an email yesterday from an office of the city-county gov't stating (as now cited in the article) that it is Athens' stated position that the tree does in fact own itself. It's a fun story. And, of course, it ties into lots of nice ecology imagery too. PurpleChez 13:31, 28 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Yes, I did take the photos in the article. Thank you! I wish photos existed of the original tree, I would really have liked to have seen it. I also quite like the tree as a symbol - I'm surprised that local ecology groups haven't grabbed ahold of it or celebrated it more. Or maybe they have and that's why it has become so popularized. Either way, you've done an excellent job of shaping this article up and, thanks to your contributions, it may be time to nominate it as a GA again. bloodofox: 14:59, 29 October 2006 (UTC)
 * I've run across one old photo supposedly of the original tree. It was HUGE. I'll have to check to see about the legalities of uploading a photo that old. (The photo may be 100 years old, but does the author or publisher of the 5-year-old coffee table book it's included in have any claim to it?)PurpleChez 14:49, 2 November 2006 (UTC)
 * Wow, I'd love to see that. If the photograph is over 100 years old, it's public domain. So, if you can get a scan of the photograph itself, that would compliment this article very well. bloodofox: 02:33, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

Image
Has this image been digitally altered? The text appears suprisingly clear and the metadata notes Adobe Photoshop use (where as the other picture by Bloodofox has the camera metadata). If it has been digitally altered please note it at least in the image summary. I originally thought the picture (and by extension the article) was a hoax although now I realize that is not the case. Cedars 00:41, 14 November 2006 (UTC)




 * This image was simply resized and grayscaled by myself in Photoshop with possible level adjusting, there was no digital retouching - I will take that as a compliment! :} bloodofox: 01:11, 14 November 2006 (UTC)


 * It may be the level addjusting that caught my eye. Sorry to bother you. Cedars 06:04, 14 November 2006 (UTC)
 * No need for an apology - I'm glad people are seeing it! bloodofox: 06:57, 14 November 2006 (UTC)
 * Yeah, it's a great picture! The lettering is so crisp it almost does look like it was photoshopped, although I can vouch for the fact that it wasn't.PurpleChez 15:02, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

That or that?
Is the tree's official name Tree That Owns Itself or Tree that Owns Itself? This is not consistent throughout the article and should definitely be addressed. -- Kicking222 20:32, 16 November 2006 (UTC)
 * I suppose "Tree That Owns Itself" would be correct. I'll go through it and fix it. bloodofox: 06:08, 19 November 2006 (UTC)
 * I believe I have corrected all instances of this. If not, please feel free to. bloodofox: 06:13, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

GA Review
Guys, this is a really interesting article. I won't bore you with my detailed assessments of all the good article criteria, since I think that it passes well written, broad in coverage, NPOV, stable and pictures. Unfortunatly, it is just out of reach of GA because of verifiability. In the history section, there is an unresolved tag. Additionally, i think that the Son of The Tree That Owns Itself section needs more citations, most desperately in the first paragraph. This currently reads like personal experience/original research.

So I am putting this article on 7 day hold, because I am sure you can come up with the goods by then. I look forward to making it a GA in a few days time! Chrisfow 21:18, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

I just removed a few of the "reference needed" footnotes that were no longer needed because they were now paired with viable references (or, in one case, because the text already acknowledged that commonly accepted information could not be verified). The entire first paragraph in "Son Of..." went along with the next paragraph, where a proper citation was provided, but I have added one to the first paragraph -- hopefully this will dispell the understandable perception that this info is anecdotal or otherwise unverifiable. Three "neededs" remain, and I think I can provide the appropriate citations when I get home. I'm also trying to find more info about the 50th Anniversary ceremony in '96, and to obtain a public-domain photo of the original tree.PurpleChez 17:40, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

References have been provided for the remaining "reference needed" citations, or the text has been amended to reflect the fact that commonly accepted information cannot be adequately substantiated and might best be regarded as legend rather than fact.PurpleChez 04:42, 25 November 2006 (UTC)
 * Good additions/edits PurpleChez. One problem remains: original research.  Source 8 is personal correspondence between you and one Professor Smith.  That is you originally researching the piece and including that research in the article.  Wiki articles should be referenced to sources which can be verified by others.  Although your original research of this is admirable (I am a fellow local history geek), unfortunatly it can't be used in a good article.  The statement does have another reference though, so taking that out takes nothing else from the piece.  As soon as that is done, I will list the article as GA.  Well done for all you hard work!  Chrisfow 16:42, 25 November 2006 (UTC)
 * awaiting your review.... and thanks for the kind words -- it was a lot of fun. PurpleChez 01:47, 26 November 2006 (UTC)
 * No problem, and well done!
 * If you obtain information via correspondence, and have it displayed publicly online (having obtained permission from the other party) wouldn't it then be verifiable by others? Just out of curiosity... -Tim Rhymeless (Er...let's shimmy) 07:30, 27 November 2006 (UTC)
 * Verifiability is about publishing more than checking up. Quoting from WP:OR: "The threshold for inclusion in Wikipedia is verifiability, not truth. By insisting that only facts, assertions, theories, ideas, claims, opinions, and arguments that have already been published by a reputable publisher may be published in Wikipedia, the no-original-research and verifiability policies reinforce one another".  Self publishing a source on your home page is not by a "reputable publisher", so cannot be included. Chrisfow 00:59, 28 November 2006 (UTC)
 * Again, just to clarify, this is even if the interviewed source is credible and verified? What if, say, I interviewed Kurt Vonnegut on youtube, and he told me something specific about himself; would that be admissible? (heck of a Christmas present, that.)-Tim Rhymeless (Er...let's shimmy) 05:04, 28 November 2006 (UTC)
 * Yeah I think that would be equally inadmissable. Youtube is not permitted as a verifiable source.  With any site like that, you could get one of your friends to act as Vonnegut and get him to say whatever you liked.  With a half decent lookalike and low res footage it would be plausable.  So again, that does not count as either credible or verified. Chrisfow 13:40, 28 November 2006 (UTC)
 * Devil's Advocate here -- I'm absolutely 100% hip to the need for verifiability, and have reworked my articles to bring them into compliance, but it seems to me that just as "easily" as "you could get one of your friends to act as Vonnegut and get him to say whatever you liked" you could also assemble whatever the heck text you wanted to, make it look legit (easy as pie with modern software), have it printed and bound at Kinko's, and sneak copies onto the shelves at a few key libraries. (Absurd, perhaps, but hardly moreso than the phony Vonnegut ploy.) A thesis or dissertation would be especially "easy" to fake, esp. since they may exist at only a single site and often look like they were in fact 'published' at Kinko's. (I imagine it wouldn't be impossible to add said book to the electronic catalog, esp. if you had a friend at the circ desk...I know this is heaping implausibility upon implausibility, and may seem fairly cynical, but I'm not actually advocating this or pleased that it could be done. Like I said -- Devil's Advocate.) Certainly, you could make inquiries and eventually prove that the book was bogus, but one could also make inquiries and prove that the video was legit. Again...in the end I agree with the policy, but I do so with some reservation. I am suspicious of any information that exists solely online, and I understand why it should be avoided in research. But (going back to the Vonnegut scenario), if the writer/editor of the Vonnegut article is in posession of information that contradicts all previous scholarship on the man -- and that information happens to be in the form of a personal letter (old school pen and ink snail mail!) from Kurt Vonnegut himself.... I would hate to see misinformation be allowed to stand because the "truth" came in the wrong format. I just wish there were another way...but isn't that always the case?.... PS: I think that the label "original research" may be confusing to some on first hearing it...I know it was to me. In writing this article I looked into sources that I have never seen cited in any other writing about the TTOI -- and that's what I originally thought was meant by the term "original research." I think a better term might be an injunction against original sources, because the concern seems to be with generating -- and then citing -- your own sources. At least that was my take on it. Sorry to ramble...it's late....PurpleChez 04:47, 4 December 2006 (UTC)


 * Lol no problem PurpleChez! I think that the original research policy was intended to prevent Wikipedia from becoming home to a load of essays.  I personally have included OR in articles...but I would never intend for that article to become a GA, and it is more for the satisfaction of the local community's interest in its history than for the benefit of the Wikipedia project.  That article is not an essay - the OR I conducted is presented without bias (I think!) - but would not pass the OR guidlines for GA.  It was here too - like I said, I admired the research behind it!  Nevertheless, those rules are rules.  If an article is put forward for GA, it gets assessed against them.  Chrisfow 01:12, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

The date given for the collapse of the original tree (Dec 1, 1942) seems to be in error. Several other sources indicate October 9, 1942, as the actual date. Given that the tree was supposedly "sick" for many years perhaps it fell in several pieces, with the major collapse in October and the remainder in December. ASAP I am going to check the ol' newspaper archives and see what turns up. Corrections will follow shortly.PurpleChez 17:14, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Salt-dumping vandals
I have found NO evidence to support the statement that the tree was "attacked" by salt-dumping vandals from "a rival school" in November, and I find this statement extremely suspect. I recall nothing from the local media and have found no mentions of this online. I also find the "rival school" citation to be shady: a rival to who? UGA? Clarke Central High? I will look into this, but I am suspicious. PurpleChez 04:20, 13 February 2007 (UTC)
 * This also sounds really suspect to me, I would not be surprised if it were simple vandalism. bloodofox: 22:41, 13 February 2007 (UTC)
 * I have since deleted this claim. bloodofox: 22:45, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

Footnote format
Please note that it is necessary to put a ref name in quotes (e.g. ) only when it consists of multiple words. Thus I almost always use single word names, acronyms, etc. PurpleChez 03:36, 25 July 2007 (UTC)


 * I'm still finding people going through the trouble of wading through articles in order to "fix" perfectly good reference tags by adding quotation marks to the reference names. THIS ISN'T NECESSARY. PurpleChez 04:51, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

Prepare for Vandalism
This page just hit the front page on Digg.--132.170.29.154 (talk) 23:44, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

"Should trees have standing"
The book Should Trees Have Standing ISBN 0379213818 would be a good reference for this page; it's on environmental law and the title essay is on rights for natural objects. 76.226.169.102 (talk) 14:30, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

External links modified
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GA Request
This article has been tagged for a GA Request. Overall it is a very nice little article. Unfortunately there are a few citation needed tags, but I think if those get cleaned up there would be no need to conduct a reassessment. AIRcorn (talk) 03:14, 21 March 2019 (UTC)
 * ✅ It appears the article is up to standard as of the addition of Infobox. No apparent cleanup needed to warrant delisting. Tag has been removed. --Nemoschool (talk) 16:52, 13 November 2019 (UTC)

No Infobox
Why does this article not have an infobox? seems like it world work great for this article as it does for Tree That Owns Itself (Alabama) (also see example). I would add the infobox myself, but I don't want to impact the articles GA status. I personally believe the infobox will only enhance the article, but please let me know if you believe otherwise. I even thing the section "Son of The Tree That Owns Itself" should have it's own infobox. – Brandon XLF   (t@lk)  20:14, 25 October 2019 (UTC)


 * I agree that an infobox is needed. --Nessie (talk) 01:42, 26 October 2019 (UTC)