User talk:Spoonthereisnospoon

Template:2008_Democratic_presidential_candidates
I see you have blanked Mike Gravel's section in Template:2008_Democratic_presidential_candidates. Since you did not provide an edit summary, I can only assume you did this because you were under the impression that Gravel is no longer in the race. He may be performing poorly in the primaries, and may be virtually ignored by the mainstream media, but he is still running an active national campaign. His current campaigning activities can be found here. For this reason, I have reinstated Mike Gravel's section. In the future, please provide an explanation for your edits, particularly something as drastic as blanking an entire section, otherwise it may be perceived as vandalism. Thanks. -kotra (talk) 20:11, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

Hello Kotra.

He may be running a national campaign, but that doesn't mean he's a candidate in the running for the nomination. I could run a national campaign if I wanted, should I be included there? This is between Obama and Clinton now, I think wikipedia should reflect that.

Keep Gravel there, sure, but in the other candidates section. I'm struggling to understand your decision.

Thanks.


 * He is a candidate in the running for the nomination. He has been on the ballot in all the primaries and caucuses, and he has registered in all states. Only three Democratic candidates are left that have that: Clinton, Obama, and Gravel. You may be under the impression (as many are) that only Obama and Clinton are left, but that is not in actuality the case. -kotra (talk) 23:17, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

I don't really care, it's only wikipedia. If you want to believe he's still in the race, do so. If you want wikipedia to look stupid by continuing to list him as a major candidate, go ahead.


 * I think you may be misunderstanding the purpose of the template. The template is for "Active candidates with national campaigns", not "major candidates" (which would be a highly subjective category). "Active candidates with national campaigns" are defined as candidates that "have filed with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC), and are conducting multi-state campaigns". Gravel certainly meets the criteria. I don't believe for a moment that Gravel still has a chance of achieving the Democratic nomination, but he is still in the race. A person can participate in a race and still have no hope of winning (if high school Cross Country taught me anything). -kotra (talk) 23:50, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for justifying your position, I appreciate that, as well as you honesty about cross country running - I can certainly relate. I was thinking that maybe there were people out there just using this as a marketing tool for the gravel campaign or as a morale booster for supporters to appear on a level playing field with the other two candidates, but now I know you're trying to do the right thing! Thanks!


 * No problem, thanks for justifying your edit, too. There certainly are people who try to use Wikipedia as a marketing tool, and there are also overzealous supporters and fans who think Wikipedia is their personal soap box. Usually they're recognized and reverted, but not always. If you're not sure if something should be there or not, I think the best to find out is to discuss it on the article's talk page; usually people will respond within a day or two. Anyway, thanks for your contributions and I hope you help us out more in the future! -kotra (talk) 19:25, 14 February 2008 (UTC)