Talk:Joseph Ransohoff

Question about Original Research

I am this person's grandson and would love to flesh out this article. While certainly some of the information I can provide is going to be easily sourced (i.e., he has a chair named after him at NYU, invented this or that technique of brain surgery), what would be the wikipedia policy on including information from my own personal history and family interviews, in regards to the 'no original research' policy? Also, a book was written about him, however, it used a pseudonym for the doctor and so I don't know what source I could point to outside the family where I could say 'yes, this book is really about Dr. Joseph Ransohoff.' Would it be appropriate to reference this book in the article? Kit 21:59:46, 2005-08-01 (UTC)

Hello, Kit. At times such as these, you should analyze the situation a little bit. We have had biographical articles based on interviews and personal knowledge in the past, and I am sure nobody will object to it, however you will have to pay special attention to keeping the article strictly neutral and factual. The book may be cited as a reference, of course. If you write it carefully, there should be no problem whatsoever. --Sn0wflake 00:02, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for your advice. I think I can proceed with the article now. It turns out there are a lot of verifiable sources I can use for most of the information anyway. I even found an article which verifies that Brain Surgeon was actually based on his life so it's not just family lore. Kit 04:31:10, 2005-08-02 (UTC)

You should be okay, but be very careful to avoid POV. For instance: "Joseph "Joe" Ransohoff (1915-2001) was a great neurosurgeon and invented the modern technique for brain surgery. He saved countless lives and was a kind and noble person."

You might want to rewrite that. Instead of great neurosurgeon, you could use accomplished neurosurgeon or respected neurosurgeon. Also, the word kind should be removed or changed, as perhaps not everyone thought he was kind. Other than that, go for it. Ryan 05:15, August 2, 2005 (UTC)

Yes, I'm not actually sure who wrote the current article, but certainly his manner was quite gruff at times and not everyone would have though him kind. I plan to use the word 'pioneering' instead of great, or language like you suggest, which I think is a bit easier to back up and can be considered NPOV. I've got a mockup of the article I'm working on with some new information already added at User:Todfox/Joseph Ransohoff. Anyway thanks for stopping by, Ryan. Kit 05:33:50, 2005-08-02 (UTC)

Work in Progress

I am putting my "work in progress" up in my userspace at User:Todfox/Joseph Ransohoff. Eventually I will use the article I am writing there as a replacement for the one found here. Comments are welcome, though I've only just started. Kit 04:32:28, 2005-08-02 (UTC)

The work continues, albeit a bit slowly. I have continued to work on the article and hope to put more effort into it. Tonight I integrated a small amount of my research into the main wikipedia article, but the rest is still at User:Todfox/Joseph Ransohoff. Kit 09:16, 13 October 2005 (UTC)

Still hoping to get back to this soon, but I have added some of my work in progress to the active article. After all, Wikipedia is about collaboration and improvement over time. Kit O'Connell (Todfox: user / talk / contribs) 10:21, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Vandalism?

An anonymous user who has mostly been vandalising Wikipedia made several edits to this page back in March (see the user's edit history) and I notice that some of the changes are still in place (for example). Someone who knows the topic better might want to check these contributions (though they could be from a legitimate user sharing the same IP). --The Famous Movie Director 08:46, 13 May 2006 (UTC)

This user is my grandfather, and I believe that the vandalism has been removed from the current article -- to the best of my knowledge. At this point, some details of family history I was unaware of have been added, but they all check out to the best of my ability. However, see my next note. Kit O'Connell (Todfox: user / talk / contribs) 09:29, 12 November 2008 (UTC)

Copyright vio

Part of this article appears to be a copyright violation of this newspaper obituary. Specifically, the language about Laura Holt. This appears to be factual information that was added to the article, but its phrasing must be changed. I am no longer editing actively, however. Kit O'Connell (Todfox: user / talk / contribs) 09:31, 12 November 2008 (UTC)