User talk:Naparstek

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Hello, Naparstek, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

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I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your messages on discussion pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or ask your question on this page and then place {{helpme}} before the question. Again, welcome! Plastikspork _―Œ^(talk) 16:22, 21 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Article

Okay, I am done working on it for a bit. You should follow the citation format that I used for the NYTimes ref and move the refs "inline" in the text. Good luck and let me know if you have more questions. Plastikspork _―Œ^(talk) 16:23, 21 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Talkback

Hello, Naparstek. You have new messages at Malik Shabazz's talk page.
Message added 02:04, 1 July 2014 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.[reply]

Please explain on what basis you have made the judgement that the subject is not "important enough" to be included in Wikipedia. What expertise or knowledge do you bring to the subject that enables you to make this determination?

Speedy deletion nomination of Health Journeys

Hello Naparstek,

I wanted to let you know that I just tagged Health Journeys for deletion, because the article doesn't clearly say why the subject is important enough to be included in an encyclopedia.

If you feel that the article shouldn't be deleted and want more time to work on it, you can contest this deletion, but please don't remove the speedy deletion tag from the top.

You can leave a note on my talk page if you have questions.

JackTracker (talk) 20:19, 2 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Health Journeys

Hi. On an edit to the Health Journeys article you comment; "WE ARE STILL WORKING ON THIS PAGE".

Could you clarify who "We" are ?

Wikipedia accounts that are shared among people are not permitted. And perhaps you should read Wikipedia guidelines on conflict of interests. Are you sure that you are following these?

Thanks. --Escape Orbit ^(Talk) 14:57, 4 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, Escape Orbit.

A number of people with knowledge of Health Journeys, the company, would like to see a Wikipedia page created for the company and have, over the last few years, asked me a few times to create a Wikipedia entry for Health Journeys. Most of these folks are 60-years-old and older and have a very difficult time understanding how to publish on Wikipedia. I asked a few of these people to email me their material about the company and am now working to assemble a page that describes the company in a way that complies with Wikipedia's rules and conventions and does not feel like an "advertisement" for Health Journeys or its products. Do you have any substantive issues or problems with the description that I have created so far? Any help or advice you can offer is appreciated.

These three companies are similar to Health Journeys and I am using their pages as general guides for formatting the Health Journeys page. I figure that if these three Wikipedia pages are acceptable then I should be able to create an acceptable page for Health Journeys without too much trouble.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headspace_(guided_meditation_platform)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sounds_True

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hay_House

Naparstek (talk) 17:57, 4 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for your reply. The problem with conflicts of interest is that, despite the best intentions in the world, and I do believe you have them, it is very difficult to be completely neutral about something you are personally connected to. It also means that the information contributed, particularly that which is unsourced, will always be open to question. Is it 100% accurate, or does it embellish or omit to flatter the subject? I don't see any obvious cases of this on what you've added. But how am I, or the reader, to know?

A lot of what you've added is unsourced. Can you provide sources for it? Otherwise it could be treated as information from primary sources which Wikipedia generally tries to avoid, often for the same reasons it avoids conflict of interests. People are rarely brutally honest about themselves.

Otherwise, I don't see any reason why your mother's company, shouldn't have a Wikipedia article. You do demonstrate its notability. And while a conflict of interest is strongly discouraged, it isn't forbidden. And again, I don't doubt your good intentions.

So, might I suggest two things;

edit your user page and make it quite clear what your relationship to your father, mother and Health Journeys is. So it may never be suggested that your are not disclosing it.
try to source what you've added, from reliable, third party sources. It can therefore be verified and not questioned.

Hope this helps. Don't hesitate to ask me if you've any questions. --Escape Orbit ^(Talk) 13:05, 5 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

On the issue of the link to google books. The main problem was that they were direct external links on the article body. These are to be avoided because the user may not realise they are being directed away from Wikipedia, and Wikipedia is not a directory of websites on the internet. They would be better as cites, however a link to the publisher direct would perhaps be even better. Hope this helps. --Escape Orbit ^(Talk) 13:25, 5 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, Escape:

A few final responses:

- I have worked for most of my career as a professional journalist and have a master's degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. As such, I have frequently dealt with questions of subjectivity, objectivity and conflict of interest in the context of reporting and publishing. So, I very much appreciate the issues you raise and always try to be sensitive to these issues when I'm writing for public consumption.

- I wouldn't call myself the author of the Wikipedia entries you've brought to my attention. I assembled contributions from other sources and posted them. Additionally, I don't have any formal, first-hand relationship or involvement with Health Journeys, the company. If you see specific passages that feel like "conflict of interest" to you, please let me know. Obviously, anyone is now free to make edits and changes to these entries and I would be happy to see others build on what I've contributed.

- In the handful of entries I've contributed to Wikipedia over the years I've made efforts to provide extensive and detailed sources and citations. I don't see any substantial unsourced facts in the articles I've contributed here. If you have questions about specific facts that seem unsourced to you, please let me know. The Health Journeys article is still under construction, keep in mind. I'm still collecting material and will continue to add citations as well.

- My identity and relationships are about as open and clear as they can be. Unlike many admins, editors and contributors, I'm using my real here name on Wikipedia. I'm not hiding behind a handle. I'm not posting anonymously. I even have some of my family relationships spelled out here on Wikipedia for everyone to see.

My goal has been to contribute a handful of informative, thoughtful, well-sourced contributions to Wikipedia that other contributors can now edit, build and improve upon. I believe I've done a decent job of this. I appreciate, understand and respect the scrutiny that you are providing but also believe there are many other pages on Wikipedia that are far more in need of this sort of attention.

Reverted

Hi. Just to explain to you that I've reverted everything you replaced on the Health Journeys article, simply because you didn't address any of the issues identified.

You explain above that you are a journalist. As such, you should know better than I;

the need for your sources to support what you are writing. Claims of Health Journeys' distribution and customer base cannot be supported by cites to sources that do not even mention the company. I've no problem with you re-adding these claims, if you can show sources that support them.
the need for impartiality and neutrality. I think your edits demonstrate how difficult this can be when you have a close, personal relationship to the subject. Please make it clear on your user page your relationship to the company founder, in order to make transparent your conflict of interest.
what original research is. An article on Wikipedia, an encyclopaedia, is not the place for your to publish your research into the company's history. Wouldn't the company website be a better place for this?

--Escape Orbit ^(Talk) 17:11, 17 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Escape Orbit: It is exceedingly clear that you are nothing but a troll and do not add any actual value to Wikipedia and certainly not this specific page.

Hiding behind a pseudonym you have no business lecturing a non-anonymized user about "conflicts of interest." What are your interests? What is your knowledge and experience regarding guided imagery audio programs and the work that is discussed on this page? Why are you hassling me, wasting my time and deleting valuable and easily verifiable information from these pages?

I see that I am not the only one you harass and troll. There are lots of others. You might want to check in with yourself and ask why you are behaving in such a pointlessly destructive manner. I'm sure that you meant well when you started here. Whatever your goal is here on Wikipedia, your actions are clearly not productive to the community or the collection and sharing of knowledge. It's sad and weird and non-constructive. And it's destroying Wikipedia.

I'm sorry you see things that way. But I notice you make no attempt to respond to any of the problems identified and choose instead to attack me for attempting to get you, and this article, to follow Wikipedia policy. If what you are adding is easily verifiable, then why not add this verification to the article? If you believe that I am "trolling" and not following policy, then please explain where.

I wonder, you do realise that the links I'm placing in my comments lead you to pages that explain the policies I'm referring to?

You fail to understand the need for verification and believe that claiming to be in possession of inside knowledge is good enough. Try to imagine what would happen if someone claimed to be related to Health Journeys, but then added lies to the article. Or what if that person was adding false, inflated claims about one of Health Journeys competitors? Would you not be annoyed? Would you not be demanding that Wikipedia did a better job at verifying the truth?

Well you are simply a person on the internet making a claim. You really could be anyone. This is especially why Wikipedia, like all encyclopaedias, requires cited sources that verify what the article says. I've explained to you where you are failing to do this.

I don't doubt your good faith. But people ignoring policy is a danger to the reliability and reputation of Wikipedia. Those guidelines and policy apply to you, and despite your conflict of interest, you can still improve this article by following them.

Lastly, I have no interests in guided imagery, which is good thing because, unlike yourself, I have no possible conflict of interest in editing this article. I also have no experience in it. I don't require any because I am not publishing anything of my own thoughts or research. Wikipedia is not the place for anyone doing that. I'm just applying Wikipedia policy and guidelines, which I do know and am trying to help you through the difficult waters you've chosen to sail, despite my advice that you probably shouldn't. Please let me know if you decide to accept my help, rather than fight it.

--Escape Orbit ^(Talk) 22:26, 20 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]

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Speedy deletion nomination of Health Journeys

If this is the first article that you have created, you may want to read the guide to writing your first article.
You may want to consider using the Article Wizard to help you create articles.

A tag has been placed on Health Journeys, requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section G11 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because the page seems to be unambiguous advertising which only promotes a company, group, product, service, person, or point of view and would need to be fundamentally rewritten in order to become encyclopedic. Please read the guidelines on spam and Wikipedia:FAQ/Organizations for more information.

If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason, you may contest the nomination by visiting the page and clicking the button labelled "Contest this speedy deletion". This will give you the opportunity to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. However, be aware that once a page is tagged for speedy deletion, it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag from the page yourself, but do not hesitate to add information in line with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. If the page is deleted, and you wish to retrieve the deleted material for future reference or improvement, then please contact the deleting administrator. -- Dlohcierekim (talk) 23:58, 19 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Nomination of Health Journeys for deletion

A discussion is taking place as to whether the article Health Journeys is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

The article will be discussed at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Health Journeys until a consensus is reached, and anyone is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.

Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion notice from the top of the article. -- Dlohcierekim (talk) 00:03, 20 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

December 2017

Welcome to Wikipedia. Constructive contributions are appreciated, but, in this edit to Health Journeys, you removed Articles for deletion notices from articles or removed other people's comments in Articles for deletion debates. This makes it difficult to establish consensus. If you oppose the deletion of an article, please comment at the respective page instead. Thank you. Shellwood (talk) 20:15, 20 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]