Talk:Harvey Molotch

This article must adhere to the biographies of living persons (BLP) policy, even if it is not a biography, because it contains material about living persons. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libellous. If such material is repeatedly inserted, or if you have other concerns, please report the issue to this noticeboard.

If you are a subject of this article, or acting on behalf of one, and you need help, please see this help page.

Biography: Science and Academia

	Biography portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography articles
	This article is supported by the science and academia work group.

Untitled

This page is clear and lucid. Of course, it's also propaganda for the person being depicted. The smirking photo points to his role in crafting, not a biography, but an autobiography and all the limits therein. However, his hand is also hidden, suggesting that the pages in Wikipeida hide their biases by hiding their authors.

While the above comment is understandable, it is wrong. As one of the authors of this article, I can assure you that Molotch no hand in it, and had no idea that it was being written. Without Molotch's cooperation, the article took a great deal of time for the authors to construct. It is meant to be an objective introduction to Molotch's diverse corpus of influential work and our sense from many readers is that it succeeds. With regard to the photo referred to above, it was obtained from Molotch's publisher (the photographer signed the necessary release) and once again Moltoch had no role in its acquisition. (Jsmith24 (talk) 16:18, 28 May 2008 (UTC))[reply]

I am in agreement with the original author: this really does smack of "self promotion"; whether written by the subject himself, or a proxy fanboy. Whether intentional, or not. It reads like the extension of a publicity blurb such as might appear on the back of a mass market paperback. I am sure that Molotch is a competent sociologist in his field, but his "discoveries" are not exactly revelatory, and his contributions are all either qualified so as to render them untraceable as to actual impact ["helped create", "helped overturn", "helped introduce"], or wildly overstated ["studies that have reconceptualized power relations in interaction", "overturned conventional wisdom", "(helped) reverse the course of urban theory"]. This type of entry serves as a good test for the role of Wikipedia in professional biography. It's also the kind of stuff that should be limited to an entry on Facebook. I, for one, vote "NO". — Preceding unsigned comment added by FMERKIN (talk • contribs) 21:08, 25 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]