User talk:Woodroar

Mooji page

Hi Woodroar,

My name is Siddhartha, I help to look after the online presence for Mooji, and I've recently been having a look at Mooji's wikipedia page and some of the history behind it.

Thank you for the work you've put into looking after this page and moderating some of the edits.

I wanted to ask your advice for improving the page, as I would rather not make edits only to find out they don't meet Wikipedia's standards. However, I do have two main concerns with the article as it stands now, and I'm very keen to get your feedback and suggestions for how to address them.

1. There seems to be a strong emphasis on the monetary aspect of Mooji's satsangs

I find this emphasis a bit suggestive in a negative way, insinuating that Mooji's teachings are just about making money. I'm not sure why it is relevant to list the number of people coming to retreats, how much they are paying, the number of hectares of Mooji's retreat center, the annual income of the organisation, etc.

I feel some implicit bias in the way this information is highlighted, but I'd be happy to hear what you think about it.

2. Poor and vague representation of Mooji's teachings

I find that most of the descriptions of Mooji's teachings revolve around journalists' subjective experiences of attending a talk. For example, it's attended mainly by "mostly well-off whites", it's a "riff on faith", his focus is totally on you "making you feel like you really matter"... and so on.

It's reasonable to include impressions and experiences, but seems misleading to present these opinions as a description of Mooji's teachings.

With so much of Mooji's teachings publicly available on YouTube or succinctly explained in his books, it feels to me that Wikipedia should give a clearer overview of what Mooji's teachings actually are.

I found the page of Gangaji, a comparable teacher, to be a good example of what I would expect to see on the Wikipedia page of a well known spiritual teacher.

I'm happy to draft an overview of Mooji's core teachings that references source material, if that could help.

Again, I'd be happy to hear your thoughts about these points. I feel the article could give a deeper insight into who Mooji is and what he is sharing without losing its objectivity. Would be very grateful for any help along these lines.

I'm sorry if this is a bit much, but I'm hoping that asking for help from someone experienced in editing and moderating Wikipedia pages would be more effective than trying to make or fight for changes on my own.

Wishing you all the best, Siddhartha Siddcorsus (talk) 18:22, 9 February 2024 (UTC)

Hi Siddcorsus, thanks for reaching out, and for mentioning your own conflict of interest on this subject. (Many editors don't!) In general, articles on Wikipedia should be based on reliable, independent, secondary sources. That means news articles, scientific journals, books from reputable publishers, and so on. We can use primary sources—for example, the subject's verified social media posts or interviews—to fill in very basic details, like their birthdate or gender identity. If what the subject claims is different from what reliable secondary sources claim—say, conflicts over a birth year/age—we generally trust those secondary sources. What we, as editors, can't do is analyze or synthesize primary materials like the subject's teachings. Unfortunately, if secondary sources tend to focus on the monetary side of things or they misunderstand some teachings, that's not something we can fix. In that case, your best course of action would be to reach out to those news outlets, or perhaps request coverage from other reliable sources.

You mentioned our article on Gangaji, which I've never seen before. I'll be honest, it's pretty bad. It's largely based on primary sources, and plenty of claims aren't sourced at all. The article's history shows a great deal of promotional editing, too. That's essentially the opposite of what a Wikipedia article should be. Our article on Mooji, on the other hand, has been mentioned at high-profile discussion pages like our noticeboard on articles about living persons and the consensus among seasoned editors has been that it meets our standards.

I've left a welcome message on your User Talk page. You can click on "Learn more about editing" for an introduction to why we do what we do, but please let me know if you have any other questions. Cheers! Woodroar (talk) 21:50, 9 February 2024 (UTC)

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No worries, I totally understand! That's weird about the filter, though, as I've been editing at Gamergate (harassment campaign) since the first couple of weeks. Oh well! Woodroar (talk) 19:49, 22 March 2024 (UTC)

Alexa Nikolas

Hello is the source from her Instagram not reliable? It is coming directly from her verified Instagram. 2600:100C:A20E:2:E039:B781:5D41:E35E (talk) 03:27, 24 March 2024 (UTC)

Hi 2600, her Instagram can only be used for basic claims about herself, and cannot be used for claims involving third parties. See WP:BLPSELFPUB for more about that. Cheers! Woodroar (talk) 03:34, 24 March 2024 (UTC)

So would third parties include children? 2600:100C:A20E:2:6907:8F90:6CAE:AB92 (talk) 23:00, 24 March 2024 (UTC)