User talk:Whippletom

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Your recent edits
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Your recent edits
Hello. In case you didn't know, when you add content to talk pages and Wikipedia pages that have open discussion, you should sign your posts by typing four tildes ( &#126;&#126;&#126;&#126; ) at the end of your comment. You may also click on the signature button located above the edit window. This will automatically insert a signature with your username or IP address and the time you posted the comment. This information is useful because other editors will be able to tell who said what, and when. --SineBot (talk) 11:00, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Your misreading of the Forbes article as it related to the UAL and the "Guitar" viral video
The Forbes item on which rely is not a news story but a single writer's opinion piece about his personal views on a broad range of long standing business issues with the carrier including "brand loyalty" and DOES NOT in any way make the connection with the video that you imply...i.e., that this video caused a precipitous $180 Million drop in stock price. (See my comments on the UAL "Talk" page.) The price of UAL stock (as is the stock in most airlines) is relatively volatile for a wide range of reasons. The BBC piece to which you also referred is also wrong as UAL closed considerably HIGHER ($3.79) on July 24 than it was on July 6 ($3.34), the day that the band's the viral video first appeared on YouTube. It went down on one day during that period to $3.18 (July 10), but was back to $3.47 by July 15. You are therefore trying to make a case about a relationship between stock price and some transient publicity relating to a music video which the objective facts DO NOT SUPPORT, and neither does the Forbes opinion column. The writer could have selected any one of thousands of customer relations incidents with UAL (or for that matter many other carriers) as examples of the issues facing the airline industry in the current economy.

To make a convincing case that this video has significantly damaged UAL's business you would need to address the following issues at a minimum. How many (if indeed any) bookings have been cancelled because of this video? How many (if any) bookings have not been made on UAL which would have otherwise because of this video? Where did you get the figures supporting this? What public opinion poll has been taken in which demonstrates the effect, if any, of this video among UAL's current and potential future customers? Have you considered whether or not United's bookings may actually have increased because the carrier has said that it is doing something to improve its customer relations regarding damaged baggage claims which, according to the DOT, are actually better than the industry average?

Simply partially quoting a single writer's speculation about what he thinks some people who might have viewed a commercial music video might think about booking with a particular carrier if they might be making a trip someplace, and then adding your own "Post hoc ergo propter hoc" speculation on top of that drawing a conclusion on what this might mean is clearly not enclyclopedic but instead speculative and POV no matter whose views they are. The bottom line here is A) the Forbes column is an opinion piece of a single writer (i.e., an "Editorial"), not an objective news story: B) it does not reference any peer reviewed research, governmental or industry reports, or any other sources, to support his conclusions, and; C) the one line you (partially) quote is clearly the writer's own personal speculative, rhetorical supposition.

This is not "petulance" on my part, and I am not now (nor have I ever been) an employee of either United or any other company relating to the airline industry. I do not personally own stock in UAL or any other affiliated or competing air carrier, nor do I have an interest in the success or failure of UAL as a business. As a professional researcher, writer, and editor with more than forty years experience, my only interest in my editing on Wikipedia is in providing objective and reliably sourced information. What you added is a inaccurate statement of the rhetorical speculation from an editorial by a single writer about a different topic (brand loyalty) which does not even make the case you imply that it does, I have not deleted your current posting as yet as doing so for a third time within 24 hours is a violation of the 3RR rule, however I urge you to do so yourself as it is clearly misleading and not supported by the facts as I have laid them out above.Centpacrr (talk) 15:40, 27 July 2009 (UTC)


 * As requested, I have rewritten the item to accurately identify the actual individual making the statement of opinion in Forbes (a Shanghai based consultant for foreign businesses operating in China), and to reflect the fact that UAL's stock price actually increased by 13% in the 18 days after the video was released on YouTube (July 6) with a link to a primary source giving the daily activity and opening, high, low, and closing prices on UAL from July 6 to 24, 2009, inclusive. Centpacrr (talk) 21:21, 27 July 2009 (UTC)