User talk:Horologium/September 2011

I. R-L
Hi, you wrote in an edit summary that an edit of mine would have been an "egregious violation of AGF". What my edit consisted of was restoring a section of the article that had been section blanked, by an IP. Section blanking, with no edit summary, especially by an IP, in my opinion clearly constitutes "possible vandalism", which is what I called it in my edit summary. Now whereas this isn't a major issue, I think that a lower tension level and more courteous behaviour toward other editors could only benefit the project. Cheers, --Dailycare (talk) 19:49, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

removing talkpage post
Hi, please do not remove my talkpage posts, like you did here Off2riorob (talk) 16:04, 18 September 2011 (UTC)
 * I misinterpreted the post; I thought that someone else (who failed to sign their post) had written the irrelevant information, and that you were highlighting it as such. I see that you pulled something from the article to discuss. My apologies.  Horologium  (talk) 16:08, 18 September 2011 (UTC)
 * I thought that was what happened, no worries, regards. - Off2riorob (talk) 16:10, 18 September 2011 (UTC)

college pages
Hi, I am currently trying to create entries for Virginia Tech's eight colleges. However, I have had trouble with tags (e.g. promotional tone, blatant advertising, etc). I was wondering if you could help me explain to me how I can improve my entries so that they will not receive these tags. I am not trying to sound promotional; I just want to include some information about these colleges since they are major components of the university. Thank you.VTMintern (talk) 17:39, 19 September 2011 (UTC)


 * This is just a brief answer, after a cursory look at some of your contributions; I'm between classes right now and don't have time to provide you with a full answer until this evening at the earliest.


 * The article for the Virginia Tech College of Natural Resources and Environment, which is currently tagged with COI, Advertisement, and "wikification" tags, may be the one that has you most concerned. The problem is that it reads like a PR piece from VT's media relations office, and while there are a fair number of citations, quite a few of them are from the university itself (not an independent source), and most of the independent sources are used for the "notable alumni" section, which is filled with people who may not meet Wikipedia's notability guidelines, which is an indication that they probably should not appear in a section of that nature. The use of indefinite quantifiers such as "many" and "much" doesn't really convey information, especially when there are no examples to illustrate them (such as the "many corporate partnerships and cooperatives" or "some of the nation's leading programs..."), and sound like puffery without explanation and context.


 * A couple of examples of well-written and fairly comprehensive articles about colleges within a university include University of the Philippines Los Baños College of Forestry and Natural Resources and Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (the latter is a college within the University of Miami). Both of them are Good Articles, which undergo a review process to ensure that they meet some standards expected of fully fleshed-out articles. The article on the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth is an example of a featured article, which is an example of our best articles; featured articles undergo a rigorous review and verification process to ensure that they meet professional standards of writing, fact-checking, and organization.


 * The CoI problem is a concern, as is your username, which implies that you have some sort of professional association with Virginia Tech. If you are a VT employee, you might want to find someone else (not connected with the university) to create the articles; while it is not strictly forbidden, such conflicts of interest can lead to less-accurate or overly flattering articles (nobody likes to deprecate an organization with which they are affiliated, especially if that organization is paying them a salary). You might want to consider working on existing articles in Wikipedia (which don't have a connection with VT) or create articles on unrelated subjects (or VT alumni who clearly meet our notability guidelines).


 *  Horologium  (talk) 18:38, 19 September 2011 (UTC)


 * Thank you for your assistance. I will keep those suggestions in mind and try to improve the articles with better sources and more succinct language. I am not a Virginia Tech employee, so do you recommend changing my username? Thanks again for the help!VTMintern (talk) 18:50, 19 September 2011 (UTC)


 * You might want to consider changing your username, because of the perceived CoI. Sometimes, the appearance of impropriety is enough to create problems down the road, even if there is nothing inappropriate afoot.
 * As you only have 69 edits (in total), I'm not sure if it's not easier simply to abandon the old account, but if you are planning on editing the same types of articles, you probably should consider a namechange, so that you aren't accused of operating multiple accounts. WP:NAMECHANGE is a link which will explain the procedure to you; it's not too difficult if you want a name that hasn't been already used.  Horologium  (talk) 01:23, 20 September 2011 (UTC)