Talk:Sharon A. Hill

Skeptic

Ms Hill stated in July 2018 that she does not want to be called a Skeptic. I will be using internet sources to add that info to this page. I should be done by 9 Feb 19. SEKluth (talk) 18:05, 7 February 2019 (UTC)

Nice edit! Since the podcast has ended, How about noting that. One possible source is is this one. RobP (talk) 23:10, 7 February 2019 (UTC)

IP revert

An IP has recently reverted a major edit I have made. I ask them to please explain why here. Santacruz ⁂ Please tag me! 16:47, 25 November 2021 (UTC)

I will soon add reasons for my content removals, but in the meanwhile encourage editors to look at the BLPs of Ira Glass and Roman Mars for appropriate inclusion of podcast quotes and descriptions. Also refer to MOS:Quote, point 5 of WP:BLPSELFPUB, and point 5 of WP:PRIMARY. Santacruz ⁂ Please tag me! 06:19, 26 November 2021 (UTC)

• Reasons for removal/addition of content, per top-to-bottom of article:

See diff. I have followed the structure of my removals one-by-one, and as it was all done in a single diff realize it might be confusing at some points to follow my rationale below. Thus, asking questions is very welcome.

• • Added consultant for Center for Inquiry to lead as it seems notable within her career (note: not notable per say, but in the context of her career).
  • "Media Guide to Skepticism" is not a notable event. The site has backlinks, and no RS mention it either on a quick Google of the document name nor the name used in the article.
  • I moved the paragraph on her comments about the skeptics label as an amendment to the first paragraph in the section, and shortened it significantly to a single sentence. The quotes were unnecessary to explain her position, and so removed them per MOS:QUOTE. "This attitude was foreshadowed" is also an unnecessary addition, as one could indicate this by saying Neither her websites nor her podcast use the word 'skeptic', due to certain issues she finds with the label. as I did in my edit, and perhaps changing the wording there to reflect more long-standing criticisms of the term if felt needed.
  • Being a speaker at Balticon does not seem like a notable event seeing how little coverage it has received. Note that the third result when searching balticon is a polish container company.
  • On her master's thesis (note per WP:SCHOLARSHIP Master's theses are only considered reliable if they have significant scholarly influence and by the same train of thought one should really only include detailed descriptions of it in a BLP if influential) but I digress as I did not remove mention to it in the article):
    • Having at least 3 paragraphs about her thesis is completely unreasonable when it is a) a master's with b) not much influence. John von Neumann's master isn't mentioned in his BLP. Einstein's BLP dedicates a single sentence to his PhD. If these were much more influential scientists, and both are GAs, I think it would be wrong to not follow their article's example (or at least have very strong reasoning as to why one would make an exception here).
    • Quoting the abstract so heavily is wrong per MOS:QUOTE and by the fact that it is giving too much detail, surely if the article itself summarizes the results of the master's thesis detailing the abstract is redundant.
    • I summarized this paragraph into the one I kept in my version, but removed many quotes per MOS:QUOTE.
    • Same for this paragraph as the one above.
  • This is a non-notable opinion piece written by Hill. I don't see the merit of including it in her BLP, even if there might be an argument to include it in criticisms of Paranormal State (I don't think so but believe the possibility does exist). Wikipedia is not a soapbox.
  • Skeptical Inquirer covering the launch of Doubtful News is WP:COISOURCE, as she is a consultant to the parent company of Skeptical Inquirer and a contributor to the magazine.
  • The paragraph about the podcast is a mess.
    • No, we do not need to mention that show notes are made available as that is standard practice (Scriptnotes, my favorite podcast, only mentions show notes when it is an actual part of the podcast content in special episodes. John August and Craig Mazin]'s articles don't mention show notes when talking about Scriptnotes either).
    • No, we do not need to mention it is available on iTunes as that is standard practice.
    • No, we do not need to mention the release schedule as that is not important to the podcast's content nor notability (for example, this would make sense for a podcast where one episode is released a year or a daily news show).
    • No, we do not need to mention who composed the music for the podcast in the podcast's host's BLP as that is not relevant in this case (would be if, for example, the composer was her wife, had a significant connection to the host, or was in-and-of-themselves notable).
    • The next few paragraphs about her opinion on crossing the bridge between skeptics and "believers" just has too many quotes (see MOS:QUOTE). Thus, as the previous paragraph did a good enough job of summarizing her opinion on the subject (WP:SUMMARY) I removed the quotes and respective accompanying text. If there is an article about the topic of interaction between these two groups, however, her opinions on the subject would merit more detailed description there (if she is considered by consensus to be an expert on the subject).
    • Removed the header on consumer protection as an unnecessary division of content — a three-line paragraph does not need to be split-off.
    • The Skeptical Inquirer review of her book should not be included per WP:COISOURCE as she is a contributor to the magazine. The next paragraph is basically a block quote, and thereby should be paraphrased. However, seeing how the other review of her book fails WP:COISOURCE and should be removed, having the only mention of her book be by herself is WP:POV.
    • Being named a consultant is not an honor, its a job. I moved it to the lead as it seems a career highlight for her.

These are the reasons for each edit I made to the article. Rp2006 I'd appreciate a response to each of them. Santacruz ⁂ Please tag me! 09:09, 26 November 2021 (UTC)