User talk:Jack Hastings

Mount Grace
Hi Jack, thanks for your message. First, and most important, keep in mind that Wikipedia is an encyclopedia. So, as in any encyclopedia, material should be impersonal. That said, there's no reason why you can't include information about CCC projects, state logging, etc. that occured on the Mount Grace property, as these events can probably be verified as factual simply by looking at CCC or state records, newspaper articles, local history books, etc. Conversely, a recollection that "Lots of people from around here used that picnic area for generations" might be backed up with newspaper articles over a period of time that showed a pattern of community use that supports that idea, or some sort of article that looked at picnic area community use in general over a period of time. "It has been hard for people who loved this place to see this transition" would be a lot harder to justify in an encycplopedic format. Understand that the end result is an impersonal encyclopedic reference, not a personal memoir. It's not a question of whether or not your recollections are accurate ( I doubt that anyone would dispute that with you), its a matter of providing documentation for those recollections and making sure that the language is neutral, not opinion based. For more information, see wp:cite, wp:notability, wp:original research, wp:neutral, and wp:fact. Hope that helps. --Pgagnon999 (talk) 14:38, 4 November 2008 (UTC)