User talk:PoloniumandJews

December 2012
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 * The following is the log entry regarding this message: Kaifeng Jews was changed by PoloniumandJews (u) (t) ANN scored at 0.952016 on 2012-12-17T10:19:28+00:00 . Thank you. ClueBot NG (talk) 10:19, 17 December 2012 (UTC)

Jews of China
I noticed that you have been going through Kaifeng Jews and History of the Jews in China and adding "citation needed" tags. I understand your frustration. The articles are indeed horribly written because so many people have added stuff without bothering to collaborate and pull the material into a cohesive whole. Often times, the information is repeated and or contradicted in several areas of the two articles. But I must say adding stuff like this, this (the “desperately” part), and this only makes the article look worse. The last one is especially bad considering that Wikipedia has a strict policy on neutrality. If you don’t think there were really Jews in ancient China, you should voice your opinion on the articles’ respective talk pages (here) and (here).

I consider myself somewhat of an expert on the history of Jews in China, particularly the Kaifeng Jews. I could easily rewrite both articles, but school and work keeps me pretty busy. If you are interested in seeing citations for historical mentions of Jews in China, I suggest reading the second part of this article I wrote a few years ago. It mentions Jews in Tang, Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, and Yuan dynasty China. The first part of the article mentions Jews in Ming and Qing dynasty China. Feel free to consult the books I cite to verify the material. --Ghostexorcist (talk) 17:32, 17 December 2012 (UTC)

---Reply below: Hi--I am a novice Wiki editor, so please bear with me and this non-conforming response. I haven't yet been able to figure out all the proper HTML, etc.

The reason I did the edits is because there is so much disinformation and outright falsehood that is affecting the quality of Wikipedia, and unfortunately, much of it comes from military channels with clear, non-neutral and strategic objectives of disinformation. The topic itself is a non-neutral topic, and I think, requires a higher standard of fact checking and citation.

On the topic of neutrality, as you are well aware, often information about Jews, and Jewish history is revisionist, or merely propagandist, which doesn't do anybody any favors. Unfortunately, we see a modern trend of outright disinformation streaming steadily from Israel, its allies, and Mossad campaigns against truth, much to the chagrin of those who seek truth. I have often encountered such military and other disinformation on Wikipedia on this and other topics, so citation from unbiased, factual, historical sources is most crucial.

Then, of course, as I am learning the ropes here--several of the mistakes you pointed to were tests to see how the formatting worked, and so forth. I tried to edit them out, but the cyberBot got to one of them first(cool toy, BTW), and the others were directed to other editors, and you. I did not know what would show and what wouldn't show, but presume that others will catch it and correct where necessary.

But really--there is nothing neutral about poorly cited/uncited factoids when the topic is potentially controversial.Lack of citation can in and of itself be interpreted as non-neutral.PoloniumandJews (talk) 03:42, 18 December 2012 (UTC)