User talk:TownsendS

Just a reminder to tag major edits with a rationale. I've been watching your edits to University of Alberta with interest, but was alarmed to see that on August 29 you removed 3600 bytes of information without a rationale. In particular, you removed a cited section in the lead that discussed the university's finances. Disclaimer: I expanded that section. This doesn't bother me in itself, but if you're going to remove sourced information from the article, you need to justify that. Are you planning to reincorporate any of that information? Why or why not?

To help other users, please summarize the reasons for your edits, or if you're planning on a major overhaul, it's helpful and courteous to post a notice on the talk page so others know what your aims are.

Thanks for your continued contributions!

--Rawlangs (talk) 16:25, 6 September 2012 (UTC)

Please see Talk:University of Alberta
Another reminder to summarize your edits. Even if constructive, unsummarized edits violate wikipedia's editing policy. I've posted the relevant guidelines to Talk:University of Alberta.

--Rawlangs (talk) 19:25, 11 October 2012 (UTC)

Reverted edit to Indira Samarasekera
I reviewed your deletion of the controversies section and took your reasons into account. The controversies section is valid biographical information with citations from reliable sources. Such information is in fact required by WP:ALIVE, specifically WP:BLPSTYLE. I agree that the content is written from a biased POV, but rewriting to bring it into line with WP:NPOV is the best response here.

Cheers,

--Rawlangs (talk) 23:00, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

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Removal of Jonathan Hart
Hi TownsendS, I know you said you'd explain Mr. Hart's removal in private, but wikipedians edit in public so that the reasons are clear for every editor. Would you mind explaining here, away from the University of Alberta page? I'll be reverting the edit tomorrow evening if I don't hear from you first. Etiquette is that you reply here. I'll see it. Thanks. --Rawlangs (talk) 02:40, 9 April 2013 (UTC)
 * Ah, I see. No, I don't think that scandal earns him a removal from the page. I would however be comfortable with some sort of controversy section for the school. Either way, still deserves inclusion. --Rawlangs (talk) 02:50, 9 April 2013 (UTC)
 * Hi Rawlangs, what's with the recent scandal-mongering? What useful purpose do these additions serve for readers? According to Wikipedia's own WP:BLP guidelines, "Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not a tabloid." Although I do think the situation with Mr. Hart warrants his removal from the main-page list of some of the U of A's most distinguished people, I do not think drawing attention to personal scandals is appropriate for the U of A page, in a separate controversy section or otherwise. TownsendS (talk) 17:04, 17 April 2013 (UTC)
 * Hi TownsendS, The university of Alberta is not a living person, so WP:BLP does not apply. The relevant content policies are WP:NPOV, WP:VERIFY and WP:ORIGINAL. As for the added scandals, their addition is demanded by WP:NPOV which requires "representing fairly, proportionately, and as far as possible without bias, all significant views that have been published by reliable sources". You can violate NPOV by omission if you fail to include relevant information. The article as you prepared it is factually correct and well researched, however it paints a very rosy picture of the University. By omitting controversies and scandals, the article failed to fully represent the university's budget, history, and reputation. --Rawlangs (talk) 18:10, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

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