User talk:James Cihlar

Welcome

Hello James Cihlar and welcome to Wikipedia! I am Ukexpat and I would like to thank you for your contributions.

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ukexpat (talk) 20:08, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Talkback

Hello, James Cihlar. You have new messages at Wikipedia:New contributors' help page.
Message added 20:13, 9 March 2010 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

ukexpat (talk) 20:13, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

User:James Cihlar/George Rabasa

Thanks for the message. I, and others, have commented on your article at the feedback page - please click the link in the talkback box above. – ukexpat (talk) 17:32, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the second message, see above. If moved in its current form it is very likely to be nominated for deletion under one of our 3 deletion processes. – ukexpat (talk) 17:40, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

George Rabasa

 Done - moved per your request, but please address as soon as possible the issues that I have raised. – ukexpat (talk) 21:47, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the message. I think the issues tags are valid and I have already explained why (at the Requests for feedback page). A few examples: "plumb the eerie corners of domestic lives in cosmopolitan settings"; "Rabasa's narratives push the commonplace to extremes, spotlight the barbarity of history, and honor the creative instinct and its desire to find form"; "Moving passages of the atrocities of the war appear in Rabasa’s novel The Wonder Singer" - none of these are encyclopedic in tone. You have to understand that there is a huge difference beteween writing book reviews and writing an encyclopedia article which requires a neutral point of view. Also, the long section on reviews is not appropriate and is promotional in tone, even though that may not be your intention. Happy to discuss further or you may want to seek the views of others at Editor assistance requests. – ukexpat (talk) 22:23, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

With respect to your off-wiki message, the intention of these tags is not to cause to offence, they are "maintenance tags" pointing out areas where the article needs improvement. Also, references to other articles are not helpful in these kind of discussions, we are talking about this article. I have tried to be helpful here. You asked for feedback and I gave it, but you have ignored the advice that I have given. I am not sure what else I can do to help. – ukexpat (talk) 22:29, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

With equal respect, you are not listening to what I am saying. Your article is not being singled out for anything. There are millions of articles on Wikipedia and they do not all get reviewed at the same time. In any event "other stuff exists" is not a helpful argument, but I have tagged Charles Baxter (author) now that you have drawn it to my attention. The tags can be removed once the issues are dealt with. If you want to seek the views of other editors, please do so at Editor assistance requests. – ukexpat (talk) 22:41, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

OK one more time, with feeling, there are no supervisors here and no one you can talk to by phone. To seek the views of other editors, please open a discussion at Editor assistance requests. – ukexpat (talk) 22:47, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

You are missing the point. There is no one to refer you to. We work by consensus and one of the places to seek the advice of other editors is Editor assistance requests. – ukexpat (talk) 22:50, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

ukexpat is quite correct, everyone here is a volunteer, and there are no supervisors to report people to, nor is there a telephone number at which to get assistance nor to complain about a contributor's comments. ukexpat in particular is noted for working on feedback requests coming from any of several pages, and doing a generally excellent job of it.

The tags to which you refer are not intended to be insulting, and you should not take them that way. They indicate problems that a given editor thinks need to be dealt with in a given article. Reasonable editors can disagree whether a given tag applies, but here I am confident that they were applied in good faith. I will comment on the specific merits of the tags on the article's talk page. DES ^(talk) 02:34, 13 March 2010 (UTC)

Friendly advice

Get a mentor. A mentor will help you focus on how Wikipedia works and how to edit articles and userspace in a constructive manner while collaborating with other editors. As far as I can tell ukexpat has been more than willing to help you while other highly experienced editors have, essentially, confirmed his reasoning and methods. The greatest resource on Wikipedia is the team of editors and new editors are no exception: I hope you are not put off by this bad experience! --Jubilee♫clipman 02:46, 13 March 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for these comments, folks. I appreciate Jubilee Clipman saying "I hope you are not put off by this bad experience." I have been put off, and I'm a little amazed that these comments in particular from Ukepat are regarded as acceptable: "OK one more time, with feeling, there are no supervisors here and no one you can talk to by phone. To seek the views of other editors, please open a discussion at Editor assistance requests. – ukexpat (talk) 22:47, 12 March 2010 (UTC) You are missing the point. There is no one to refer you to." In fact, Wikipedia has a Dispute Resolution page, and a Wikiquette alerts page, neither of which Ukepat referred me to. Best,--James Cihlar (talk) 03:43, 13 March 2010 (UTC)

From reading the above, it appears Ukexpat thought you were requesting that he refer you to a supervising editor, something which Wikipedia does not have. This is strictly a user-edited website with no outside or supervisory editorial control, no one manning telephones to answer questions or deal with problems. While he could have, perhaps, worded his responses a bit more clearly, he was correct in that regard. — Huntster (t @ c) 03:52, 13 March 2010 (UTC)

Hello, James Cihlar. You have new messages at Jubileeclipman's talk page.
You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.