Talk:U.S. National Whitewater Center

Providing Accurate Information

I want to disclose that I may have a conflict of interest with the U.S. National Whitewater Center and am trying to provide wikipedia with accurate, unbiased information. I would like to edit this page so that it is more organized, provides information about more than the USNWC's whitewater channels and includes information on all of the activities and educational programs that the USNWC offers. I intend to take down and correct inaccurate information and encourage others to help provide third party sources and additional accurate and unbiased information. Singularperson (talk) 19:55, 26 May 2011 (UTC)singularperson

I'm afraid your changes still make the article read like an advertising brochure, which is why it was flagged. (I am assuming you are also the author of the changes made by [User:U.S. National Whitewater Center].) ‎The added information is good, but the language needs to be more neutral. Also, the map and the aerial picture should be restored.HowardMorland (talk) 20:54, 8 June 2011 (UTC)

Can you give an example of where the language isn't neutral? Neutrality was my goal, so I would appreciate suggestions as to how to make it better. Singularperson (talk) 14:59, 14 June 2011 (UTC)Singularperson

The first thing I noticed is that you took down a lot of good information about the whitewater channels and put up information about the other, non-whitewater activities at USNWC (US National Whitewater Center). I am guessing you want to promote the revenue-producing features of the facility. That's understandable, since artificial whitewater facilities are very expensive to build and operate, and the athletes who train there don't bring in much money. This whole business started in Europe, with facilities that rely more on diverted streamwater than electric pumps. And the construction expense there is largely financed by government.

However, the notability of USNWC as the subject of a Wikipedia article is its whitewater course. The zip lines, bike trails, rock concerts, etc., which are an important part of the overall enterprise, are not particularly unusual, and they are not the reason the Charlotte facility was built. Artificial whitewater was created to allow a sport practiced on mountain streams to be included in the Olympic Games, which are normally held in cities far from natural whitewater. Nowadays, nations which hope to field competitive teams all have artificial whitewater courses where their athletes train, and where regional and international competitions are held. Each venue is different; each one is an experiment in architecture and engineering. Some work better than others.

I am trying to write a series of articles on all the major artificial whitewater courses, primarily for use by people who follow the sport of whitewater slalom. I think it is proper to mention all of the activities at USNWC, but not to the exclusion of the main purpose of the place. Near the top of the infobox is a link to your website which does an excellent job of describing all the things that go on at USNWC. I don't think you want the Wikipedia article to duplicate the website, and you certainly don't want the article to be flagged with a warning that implies the article is biased.

I suggest going back to an earlier version of the article, which was footnoted to newspaper articles and videos, unlike most of the recent new material, and then add a section or two about the non-whitewater activities. (We need published sources we can cite to document these sections.) I have put a working copy in my sandbox space User:HowardMorland/Sandbox-2 which I am tinkering with and plan to substitute in next week. Why don't you take a look and leave comments on the discussion page there?

Thanks. HowardMorland (talk) 01:07, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

I made the suggested substitution. HowardMorland (talk) 16:10, 1 July 2011 (UTC)

Recent changes

Once again someone at USNWC has tried to turn this article into an advertising brochure. I am tempted to simply revert all the changes, but I will look at them first. In the meantime, I am restoring the whitewater course infobox. HowardMorland (talk) 19:17, 1 February 2015 (UTC)

I noticed that as well. The "Guests can enjoy" sentence is definitely just taken from http://usnwc.org/about/, for example. But it sounds like you have knowledge of and interest in this subject and this article (whereas I just stumbled upon this when researching Charlotte, North Carolina), so I'll leave fixing it to you :) BreakfastJr (talk) 06:30, 8 February 2015 (UTC)

I restored the article to an earlier version. I would request that people at the U.S. National Whitewater Center stop trying to change this article into an advertising brochure. As it is now, it follows the style of articles about other artificial whitewater facilities, such as those in Europe and elsewhere that are used for canoe slalom training and competition, as is this one. I understand that in this country, where canoe slalom is not as popular as it is in Europe, artificial whitewater channels are not supported by the government or sponsored by industry. Consequently, the Charlotte facility must make a living as a multi-purpose family theme park. However, the thing that makes it different from a Busch Gardens park or a Six Flags park is the pump-powered water channel. And the article does contain a comprehensive list of the non-whitewater features. HowardMorland (talk) 13:15, 12 May 2015 (UTC)

Recent Events

Recently the usnwc has come under a bit of scrutiny after a girl died of a brain eating amoeba after coming here with her church group. I wanted to add this to the article, but couldn't' figure out how to do it without sounding biased. Could somebody please add this to the article? Joel.Miles925 (talk) 13:56, 23 June 2016 (UTC)