User talk:Dutch Guy canuck

Macula risk
Hello, Dutch Guy! Thanks for your note on my talk page, and welcome to Wikipedia! You asked why I recommended "delete" for the article "Macula risk," and I'll try to explain. In order to be included in Wikipedia, a subject has to be "notable". That term is very precisely defined here: WP:NOTABLE. It means that the subject has to have received significant coverage from neutral, third party sources. That does not appear to be true about this proprietary test; it has not been written about, either in the medical literature or in the lay press. Without such coverage, there is no way to rewrite this article to make it acceptable. It's not a matter of how the article is written, although that was a problem with this article; the subject cannot be included in Wikipedia because it does not meet the notability requirement. This is not a value judgment on the subject itself; it's simply a requirement of what it means to include something in an encyclopedia.

That's also what I meant by "synthesis/original research". The article did not report what independent third party sources had said about the product; it was based entirely on primary or first-party reporting. There are places for that kind of article, but Wikipedia is not the place.

I and others also suspected that the article was placed here to promote the test. Wikipedia is not for advertising.

Another suspicion, which I immediately noted and others would pick up on as well: you ("Dutch Guy canuck") are a brand new registered user. But strangely, your first and only posts on Wikipedia have been followup comments about this deleted article. That seems very strange for someone who has never posted on Wikipedia before, and it leads to the suspicion that you (the person who registered as Dutch Guy canuck) may have posted here previously under other names. Don't do that; it's against the rules as explained at WP:SOCKPUPPET. This is just advice, I'm not going to report my suspicion.

Finally I note that in another note you asked what we mean by "sign your note by typing four tildes". The tilde ~ is the CAPITAL of a key located at the top left of your keyboard, right under the "escape" key. If you type that character that four times at the end of your note, it will automatically add your name and a date/time stamp. Like this: ~ MelanieN (talk) 15:49, 30 May 2011 (UTC)


 * Thanks for your reply. You don't need to send me all the supporting information about your test; I accept that it is a real test and commercially available. What I don't accept (and the consensus at discussion didn't accept) is that this commercial test is sufficiently notable to have a whole article of its own. I was going to suggest you insert a mention of it in the article Macular degeneration but I see you have already done so. I'm sorry you feel the administrator blocked your earlier username "arbitrarily". I doubt if it was arbitrary, although it may have felt that way to you. I don't know what your earlier username was, but if it was something that identified you as part of the company that produces the product, the name would have been blocked under WP:PRODNAME. Or if it appeared that you were here only to promote a product, you could have been blocked as an advertising-only account. About starting a new section, the easiest way on a talk page is to click the "new section" box at the very top of the page. On a regular (non-talk) page, you can type two equal signs == in front of and after the heading you want to start. --MelanieN (talk) 16:55, 30 May 2011 (UTC)
 * It isn't necessary for Wikipedia to contain all the information in the world about everything in the world. If someone sees your product mentioned in the Macular degeneration article, they can easily Google the phrase to get all the information they want. --MelanieN (talk) 20:24, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

Your recent edits
Hello. In case you didn't know, when you add content to talk pages and Wikipedia pages that have open discussion, you should sign your posts by typing four tildes ( &#126;&#126;&#126;&#126; ) at the end of your comment. You could also click on the signature button located above the edit window. This will automatically insert a signature with your username or IP address and the time you posted the comment. This information is useful because other editors will be able to tell who said what, and when. Thank you. --SineBot (talk) 21:17, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

Macula risk
You contacted my by email, on a subpage of my talkpage and now finally on my talkpage because I voted "delete" on Articles for deletion/Macula Risk. I have considered your argument, reviewed my vote on the AFD, and reviewed the content of the deleted article.

There is no question that environmental and genetic risk factors may contribute to macular degeneration. What troubled me and the other people voting "delete" was the fact that Macula Risk (apparently a patented process) was being discussed without any evidence that it actually acurately predicts risk, and without any secondary sources supporting its use in practice. As an encyclopedia, Wikipedia can only describe what is already known, rather than predict the future. For articles on medical subjects, we have an agreed guideline between editors that we can only include diagnostic modalities and treatments that are supported by secondary sources, such as a textbook chapter or high-quality general review. Please refer to WP:MEDRS.

I note that your previous account was blocked by Sandstein. I also note that on this edit (diff) you revealed yourself to be an employee of the company associated with Macula Risk, and you have a clear conflict of interest. This is therefore your last warning before this account, too, will be blocked. JFW &#124; T@lk  14:40, 6 June 2011 (UTC)