User talk:Bobjardine

Welcome!

Hello,, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful: I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your messages on discussion pages using four tildes ( ~ ); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, check out Questions, ask me on, or ask your question on this page and then place  before the question. Again, welcome! -Arch dude (talk) 20:20, 22 November 2007 (UTC)
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Burroughs Large Systems
Boy am I glad to see you!

I substantially re-wrote the Burroughs Large System article about a year ago, based on my dim memories of work on a B5500 system in 1970 and a B6700 system in 1977-1979. It's not that I am any kind of expert, but the article was a real mess.

When I did that work, I did not really understand the Wikipedia rules, and in retrospect, this was a good thing. I took an article that had very few references, and I changed it without citing any references. In actual fact, the Wikipedia rules are quite strict: if a statement is not backed up by a reference, you must delete the statement. This is true even if you have personal knowledge of the subject matter. In practice, this rule is applied only if someone raises an objection to a statement.

Now that you are here, I hope you can supply some "reliable sources." "Reliable source" is a technical term here at Wikipedia: please see WP:V. A paper document such as a Burrough manual is a reliable source, as is an account in the technical press. But it's hard to find such sources fro early computers. If you have any such documents lyhing around, could you please add citations to the article? I can help with the formatting.

Note that personal knowledge is NOT a reliable source. It does not matter who you are or whether ro not you were actually there: Wikipedia has no way to verify these things, so we insist on a citation to a widely-published source. On the surface, this seems silly and counterproductive, and somewhat insulting to the folks with real first-person knowledge. However, after you think about it a lot, you will understand that since anybody can edit, and anybody can make any claim they choose to make, we cannot accept unverifiable claims. We must insist that claims are backed up by publications that have publicly-identifiable authors and accountability. I do not want to scare you off. Please continue to make good-faith edits that improve Wikipedia. But if you can, please add citations.

You might want to add a brief descriptin of yourself on your user page, but it's not required.

You may choose to reply here, or you may choose to reply on my talk page. And Thanks again. -Arch dude (talk) 03:31, 23 November 2007 (UTC)