User talk:MarkStreet

Aw man, please tell me it's true you're the editor of the Tiraspol Times! I love that publication ... whenever I'm feeling a bit down, I surf over to it and it always gives me a laugh ... it's better than Brasseye! The mixture of incredible parochialism with the fact there's only ever two stories (Pridnestrovie good! and Moldova sucks!) is really quite sweet. And you gotta love the slick web design trying to hide the fact that it's barefaced propaganda :-) Beats the Vladivostok times into a cocked hat any day. I salute you, sir! --129.67.117.146 (talk) 21:37, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

Please refrain from adding nonsense to Wikipedia, as you did to User talk:Thebainer. It is considered vandalism. If you would like to experiment, use the sandbox. -Patstuart 14:34, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

Hi MarkStreet
Mark, this is Wiliam Mauco, one of the more active editors here in Wikipedia on Transnistria related topics. I see that you have added some comments to the talk page of Transnistria. Your participation is very welcome, like everyone else's, but please do not delete any comments (yours or others) after they have been posted. If you wish to change something that you have said earlier, you should instead use the strike tag. That way, we preserve the record and the conversation flows better. The exception to that is personal attacks. Wikipedia has guidelines in place for allowing personal attacks to be removed. An unrelated subject, but something which I still think should be mentioned, is that your newspaper uses Wikipedia as a source, including some of my own work and that of another editor. Both of us are pleased and flattered (and have said so on our respective Talk pages), so there is not a problem with that and I know that Tiraspol Times is far from alone in this practice. However, we would be even more flattered if you would please include acknowledgement by making a reference to Wikipedia in the articles that use this information. Especially when you copy verbatim, please... - Mauco 15:56, 30 September 2006 (UTC)
 * Seconded. Please don't delete pieces of old conversations. This makes some replies to look stupid. `'mikka (t) 19:21, 30 September 2006 (UTC)

Hi Alex

I'm the editor of Tiraspol Times, I am happy to deal with you and any queries you may have, Let me assure you that we are not what you think and say we are.

In our game reputation is everything so we genuinely try to balance our reports but pleasing everyone is impossible in that region.

However, If you see any report in Tiraspol Times that you feel is not balanced, tell me.

We don't publicise our address and phone numbers becaise we operate online and to be frank we simply are not there a lot of the time.

Tiraspol Times is a very small part of what we do internationally, but it is independent and its best to keep it like that given the nonsense some people claim about it.

Our reporters have been very seriously threatened and for that reason we like to keep safe given we are not native to your region.

One thing I want to achieve outside my professional role is to try and take the steam and hatred out of the dispute there, Let all sides be heard is the basis for better understanding.

If we share different views thats fine I will listen and learn from you.

I admire passionate people so please keep in touch and continue to add to the issues in a positive manner

thanks

Mark Street MarkStreet
 * For a journalist - and judging from your name, a native speaker of English - it seems to me that your level of English is remarkably poor!155.198.40.202 (talk) 14:59, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Tiraspol TImes
If you are an editor of Tiraspol Times, please explain why your on-line paper never reported the claims of Helsinki Comitee for Human Rights in Moldova about the infringements of the referendum in Transnistria http://conflict.md/stiri.php?ID=1448 ? If you have doubts about the correctness of HCHRM report, why you don't ask for an interview with its chairman, Stefan Urîtu?--MariusM 16:34, 1 October 2006 (UTC)

150 international observers declared the referendum as fine and at the time not a single voice raised an issue. that is a fact. It is apity they did not raise their concerns at the time to me.

thanks for your comment all the same, well spotted

Dignitas and threats
Thanks Mark for your answer, but I believe you still should check HCHRM report and ask Urîtu for an interview. Corner him with your difficult questions! HCHRM was founded in Tiraspol in 1990.

You tell: "Our reporters have been very seriously threatened". Who threatened you? As "Tiraspol Times" is only an online paper, most people from Transnistria don't have internet connection, the few who had anyhow can read plenty of criticism on internet regarding Smirnov's rule, so for who are you so dangerous?

I would be interested in the "Dignitas" organisation from Slobozia. You made only a brief mention about them (to explain that its leader is indeed free), but for me is a serious issue - people with pro-moldovan views were arrested one month before the referendum - that is raising question about the fairness of referendum. Maybe is only a coincidence, but in a normal democratic country such arrest will develop media interest. Either is linked with the bus explosion or is linked with some intimidation of pro-moldovan activists, in both cases media from a democratic Tiraspol should be interested to clarify (not only media from Chişinău). Why not an interview with Ghenadie Ţăran?--MariusM 13:25, 2 October 2006 (UTC)


 * Mark, if some of your journalists have been receiving threats, you are not alone. I have gotten several theats too, and I have never published anything in favour of Transnistria in any publication. I am merely a researcher for AOL and I also work a lot on Wikipedia and other online venues. But I have been threatened with death threats by email, and with retaliation by the Romanian Secret Service (this is documented here on Wikipedia), so I can imagine what guys like you are facing. I agree with the fellow above who says that you should interview Ghenadie Taran. Don't interview Stefan Uritu because he will just lie like he always does, but the Ghenadie Taran interview would be great and please don't censor it in any way. - Mauco 16:03, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

Verify your identity
Mark, can you please verify that you are indeed an editor for the Tiraspol Times as you claim? Please feel free to e-mail me. Jayjg (talk) 17:41, 3 October 2006 (UTC)

Sockpuppetry case
You have been accused of sockpuppetry. Please refer to Suspected sock puppets/MarkStreet for evidence. Please make sure you make yourself familiar with notes for the suspect before editing the evidence page. MariusM 19:07, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Pledge for 100% truth and accuracy?
MarkStreet, your online magazine pledge for 100% truth and accuracy, but it seems for me far away from this. I just look at a random article in Tiraspol Times: http://www.tiraspoltimes.com/news/kamenka_a_little_switzerland_on_the_dniester.html Quote: "In contrast to Moldova, the territory on the left bank of the Dniester River was Christian". Of course, this is the propagandist line: East and West Bank of Dniester were always in contrast. Foreigners who know nothing about Moldova (target public of "Tiraspol Times") will believe that Moldova was islamic. In fact, Moldova agreed to pay taxes to Ottoman Turkey in Middle Ages, but Turks were not allowed to build any mosque in Moldovan teritory. Moldova was always Christian. Even in Wikipedia you can find those informations. What about your pledge for truth?--MariusM 15:11, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

OSTK archives
Dear Mr. Street, I wondered if you might be of some help to me. I am a graduate student at the University of California, Santa Barbara and I am writing a dissertation about the OSTK and its role in the creation of the PMR. I am curious, do you happen to know if there are any OSTK archives that are open to scholars? Also, are the Tiraspol city soviet archives or the party’s city committee archives (particularly from the 1989-1991 period) open to scholars? I appreciate your time. Best wishes, Jamason 03:15, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

Article suggestion
We have a discussion right now on Transnistria's Talk page about the level of native leadership. Despite the fact that you said that you don't agree with my position, I would like to suggest that this would be an interesting topic for a feature article on Tiraspol Times. I don't have a lot of research on this, except for what I have already posted on the Talk page, but you are free to use any of that if you find it useful. At least suggest it to one of the journalists and ask them what they think. You should also interview some of the ones who are not native to the region. That would be interesting to read about. It is a subject which has almost not been covered anywhere, in the press or on the Internet, and as the heated discussion in the Talk page shows, there are a lot of misconceptions. Hopefully you can write a fair and balanced article based just on facts, and I allow you to include the ones which I have already posted publicly, if you want to use those as the starting point for your newspaper's research. - Mauco 01:30, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

Request
I would like to know what is the relation between you, as editor of TiraspolTimes.com, and ICDISS. Greier 18:03, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

An observation
As my experience on Wikipedia shows me, those who claim to be absolutely neutral on a disputed issue tend to have the greatest bias of all. I consider myself to be sympathetic to the plight of the Transnistrian people (but not its current government) and believe that the current state of many Transnistria-related articles is rather skewed, yet introduction of your proposals will skew them in the other direction IMO. This will not help to bring those articles to NPOV at all. --Illythr 18:39, 23 October 2006 (UTC)


 * I have pointed out the same thing to MarkStreet. I have requested that he keeps his edits to Talk space, due to the appearance of a conflict of interest, and so far he has followed that to a tee. I was a bit surprised to see him claim neutrality also, but you know, this is like beauty and it is all in the eyes of the beholder. I often consider myself neutral as well (and I am sure that you do, too, Illythr) but we have both been attacked more than once for being Russians (and actually, I am not, and even if you are, what matters is that you should be judged on the strength of your edits and nothing else). - Mauco 17:08, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the reply, I also appreciate that you're keeping to talk pages and discuss things.

Mark, in order to create a new section on a page, use the following syntax: ==Sectionname== Here, a nice formatting tutorial for you:. :-) --Illythr 19:14, 24 October 2006 (UTC)