User talk:Don Columbia

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Welcome to Wikipedia, Don Columbia! Thank you for your contributions. I am Wikih101 and have been editing Wikipedia for quite some time, so if you have any questions feel free to leave me a message on my talk page. You can also check out Questions or type at the bottom of this page. Here are some pages that you might find helpful: Also, when you post on talk pages you should sign your name using four tildes ( ~ ); that will automatically produce your username and the date. I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Wikih101 (talk) 23:24, 23 January 2012 (UTC)
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September 2020
Hi and thanks for your contributions. You may not be aware that the encyclopedia has a WP:NOR (No Original Research) policy. I notice some of your edits, like  and  for example, are what WP defines as original research. That is, you’re assembling discrete data from sources and then stating connections and conclusions that the sources don’t explicitly make, in Wikipedia’s voice, which is what we call WP:SYNTHESIS. Wikipedia editors can only summarize what reliable sources have written about a given subject, and any analysis and conclusion must come from the source itself. These policies can be difficult to understand and seem counterintuitive, especially for new editors used to academic and journalistic writing where original research is expected and demanded. Again, thanks for your contributions and I hope you take this in the spirit it was intended. Best regards, - LuckyLouie (talk) 16:49, 23 September 2020 (UTC)

Thanks much for the comment. And I do appreciate it and take it in the spirit you intended. Please feel free to continue commenting, especially on specific edits. And yes, I have run into that editorial policy in the past when I made changes/corrections/edits based on my original research. (My career, prior to retirement, was indeed based on such research.)

With regard to the instant ham radio article -- I have been a licensed amateur radio operator for almost 60 years -- I have been doing a deep dive to uncover the best knowable etymology. I have even consulted the unabridged Oxford English Dictionary, which I found suffers from a number of inadequacies. For example, the definition it adopts is at odds with virtually every other standard dictionary (e.g., Merriam-Webster's Collegiate (10th ed.)); the OED omits the word "licensed" in the definition. Furthermore, the OED -- which is UK-centric -- indicates the term originated in America, but then provides a 1922 Glasgow (Scotland) newspaper for its earliest radio-usage example (which is in the context of having a license)! I reached out to the ARRL to see if they would be willing to approach the OED editors on the subject. If not, I will try on my own, and supply them with early, American usages. (I will probably accomplish nothing.)

In any event, with regard to your two specific edit examples, which I see you are apparently (so far) and graciously leaving to me:

1. I agree. I was making a connection between "H.A.M." and Hawkins. It came to me in a "minor epiphany" that Hawkins -- a 21-year-old commercial wireless telegrapher in 1909, when he "registered" his callsign -- almost certainly chose "ham" as his call in view of the baggage he knew it carried. Even now, more than a century later, it brings a smile to my face, after reading many scores of usage examples between 1881 and 1909. Although I didn't state it as a fact, but a possibility, I will defer to you, and delete the "epiphany." Perhaps I'll write an article someday.

2. On the other hand, I don't quite understand your second edit example, where I merely changed "college" student to "high school" student, citing a reliable source (Armstrong's biographer) for the fact that in (April) 1909, the date of the first appearance of "ham" wireless operator provided in the article itself (second sentence), Armstrong was a high school student at Yonkers (NY) High School. That is the crucial fact debunking the fanciful etymology. The previous, unedited text did not even provide a source supporting that Armstrong was a "college" student when "ham" first appeared.

One final point, you mention that Wikipedia can only summarize what "reliable sources" have previously written. In many cases, including (especially?) here, the reliable sources are in wide disarray and conflict. (For example, The New York Times -- the "paper of record," which I greatly admire -- states that "ham" derives from a magazine that never existed!) Indeed, the purpose of this particular etymology article, I thought, was to resolve these differences. This situation brings to mind what obligations, if any, social media platforms (e.g., Facebook and Twitter) have regarding demonstrably false information posted on their platforms. . ..

As a ham would say, 73. Don Columbia (talk) 14:56, 24 September 2020 (UTC)

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