User talk:Btbarber

Alan B. Gaylor
Hi Brad, sorry it's taken me a while to reply, I did not notice the note that you'd tagged onto the end of my talk page. I recommend that messages on talk pages are preceded by a section heading so that they are easy to spot.

Since I never tagged the article you refer to it is difficult to comment on another editor's reasoning. There is no doubt that the article needs some work, but the beauty of Wikipedia is that it does not have to be your problem. You have sowed the seed and other editors will, over time, collaborate to grow the article.

If you feel the need to improve the article further, then I would suggest that the lack of references is the biggest problem. There is a slight sense of the article being a promotion for the business, leading to confusion as to whether the article is about the man, or his business. I would also recommend moving all external links to the External links section, and removing those from the main body of the article which exist in the External links section already. Be careful that they are not commercial links that will be identified as spam.

The article needs:
 * a References section with a mix of both web and printed sources. Some of the current external links may be better utilised as references.
 * more detail on the man - his education, his impact on society, etc. This will take some research which will also add to your list of references.
 * a separate section for his business interests, in order to make a clear distiction between the man and his businesses.
 * some internal links - to his state, for instance, which should be referred to as Oklahoma, not OK.

Doing the above will go a long way to improving the quality of the article.

Regards LittleOldMe 11:38, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

Wow, I really appreciate this info. I'm a newbie to this and thought my subject is worthy of listing due to his service to the community. He's been a business icon in Houston for decades. I'll work on this in the next few days using your comments as a guide. Thanks so much. Editing is fun and very educational, too! Best regards,--bradb 15:15, 5 December 2006 (UTC)