Talk:Yoani Sánchez/Archive 1

Archive 1

Archive 2

Article has become a mirror of her blog

This article is very long, and is not long only due to the merits of Yoani Sanchez as a political dissident, but mainly because of the excessive use of quotations from her blog into the article. Sections Yoani Sanchez#Becoming a Blogger and Yoani Sanchez#Father Jose Conrado's Letter to Raul Castro Ruz have each at least 3 long blog entries. Is it justifiable to have such long blog entries? Is there any other precedent from other Wikipedia articles of comparable length?

Likeminas (talk) 19:17, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

response to this comment

Hi there. I haven't contributed all of this entry but I've contributed a lot. My intention in quoting extensively from Yoani's blog was to meet the requirements of having the content "verifiable" -- a sort of "from the horse's mouth" approach.

I am completely new to Wiki (as an author) and really want to present the information in a professional way that meets Wiki's standards.

So I'm completely open to suggestions, help, guidance etc.

The first challenge here is -- in presenting Yoani's life, the source is basically her. There are a lot of newspaper articles and so on; would it be more appropriate to use them as sources? I don't necessarily consider "journalism" on the whole an unimpeachable source... we know how often reporters get it wrong (though the articles about Yoani all tend to agree and to repeat what's in her blog, so they're probably pretty reliable). There really aren't any other 'independent' sources for information about her. As is the case for many living people. I did look at Andrew Sullivan's entry as a guideline... where it seems almost all the references are from his blog or from newspaper and magazine articles.

Anyway -- please advise me how to go about this. And I'll do my best! —Preceding Yoaniedits (talk) 21:06, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

I may suggest using "references" then.--99.192.58.55 (talk) 14:24, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

Communism

I have changed "portrayal of the life in Cuba under Comunism" to "portrayal of life in Cuba under it's current Government" due to the fact that cuba is not "under communism" since in communism there is no government, if you dispute this please talk to me here before changing it, I will be checking this page out every day for the next 2 weeks. also i notice that "under it's current government" is probably not the best wording so I welcome anyone to re-word that part. (72.81.40.31 (talk) 20:32, 5 August 2009 (UTC))

Oh yes sorry I wasn't logged in, this is my username ---> (DrakeLuvenstein (talk) 20:35, 5 August 2009 (UTC))

So, Cuban government is not Communist ? This denial is just more evidence that Wikipedia is run by Communists. The apologia for Walter Duranty. The downplay of Zelaya's Communist beliefs. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.162.67.79 (talk) 15:48, 12 November 2009 (UTC)

Knol on Yoani Sánchez

I am writing a Knol on Yoani Sánchez.

http://knol.google.com/k/gabriel-delpino/yoani-s%C3%A1nchez/3cupeur4lnq6l/1#view

It not intended to compete with Wikipedia. It is intented to be used to collect sources about Yoani Sánchez and include more extensive descriptions than Wikipedia.

This Knol could be a help to those writing this article. I am also working on the Spanish article of Wikipedia.

--Gabriel Delpino (talk) 18:48, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

I wouldn't use this wikipedia article as a source, since its terrible biases towards her.--Damiens.rf 02:41, 4 November 2009 (UTC)

Yoani Sánchez' website

user:olive suggested I should explain here why I reverted the deletion of the information I had added about the Website desdecuba.com which carries the "blog" by Yoani Sánchez and which is registered to a Yoani Sánchez in Spain at the address and phone number of the press spokesperson in Spai of the big web hoster Strato. The website is registred by Cronos AG, Strato's subsidiary for enterprise customers and large resellers. This website is a big undertaking and sports no advertisement. This is all relevant to the person Y.S. And this is all well documented in other sources, and the information about the owner of her website is public knowledge. Simply execute the program "whois desdecuba.com", and the information is being displayed. There is certainly also a website where this information is being displayed as an HTML page. There is nothing hidden in there. The website hosts seven blogs and presents the articles signed by Yoani Sánchez in 13 languages. This is relevant. --L.Willms (talk) 16:58, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

This is written like an advertisement and is not encyclopedic. Dreadstar ☥ 18:56, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

As I said below, every article in Wikipedia is an advertisement for the subject of that article. If that is the case, then the article on Yoani Sánchez has to be deleted completely, because mentioning her is an advertisement for her activity. On the other hand, her publishing venture relies on this business relationship with Strato AG thru Strato's subsidiary for big enterprises. So it is extremely relevant. Without this business relationship, Sanchez would not be able to reach so many people, and have this publication published in such a professional way with translations in so many languages under the same domain. So it has to be said in this encyclopedic article. Hiding the material basis of her publishing venture is like speaking about the landing on the moon and discarding any information about the means to get from Earth to moon in the first place. --L.Willms (talk) 21:12, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

First, you are incorrect "every article in Wikipedia" is not an advertisement, none of Wikipedia's articles are meant to be 'advertisements'. The content you added to the article is written exactly as an advertisement. Additionally, upon translation, the source you provided for the content does not appear to support that content. Dreadstar ☥ 21:19, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Well, I did not want to publish any advertisement, neither for Ms. Sánchez nor for her business associates. But her publishing venture based on a close business relationship with one of Europe's larges web hosters is of encyclopedic interest for the description of the person Ms. Sánchez. To do this by shy hints do some dark sources which must not be disclosed is a disgrace and would shed some very negative light on Ms. Sánchez and on this article. Her business relationship with Strato has to be named, and it is not an advertisement neither for Ms. Sánchez nor for the owners of Strato. Some people may even think it is a denounciation of Strato, of Sanchez, or even both. To avoid that, it should be explained in a plain, factual language, and not hidden as something shabby and fishy which should not be mentioned. To hide the information would help those who want to discredit this article as being a political propaganda sheet of which nothing should be believed. "They hide something. What are they afraid of?". No, let's avoid that and lay the facts on the table. --L.Willms (talk) 21:37, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

That's fine, but I personally have not had the time to research this area of Yoani's connections and the content thus far proposed does not describe this relationship in any encyclopedic manner, it reads as advertising. If you have other sources that discuss this aspect of Yoani's internet life, please bring them to the table and let's see what we can find. And might as well continue this discussion in the section below, since it's taken on a life of its own and I refatored some of the more...um...shall we say "sensationalistic" rhetoric... :) Dreadstar ☥ 07:16, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Is the whole article an advertisement?

... because it does nothing but an external link spamming to feature the website of this woman. User user:dreadstar suppressed this information as purported "linkspam": Her Internet domain desdecuba.com is registered and hosted by Cronon AG, the subsidiary for enterprise customers and large resellers of Strato AG, Europe's second largest Web Space Provider. The contact address for that domain is the press spokesperson of Strato in Spain. The headquarters of Strato AG are in Berlin, Germany. . Yoani Sánchez' website hosts seven blog's and the articles signed by her appear in 13 languages on that site. --L.Willms (talk) 17:05, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Sanchez's blog is itself highly notable and has been cited world wide, and is more specifically, highly critical to an article devoted to Yoani and her internet activities. Note that the blog itself has also been hosted by the Huffington Post [1] This means that the blog as a source for Yoani's statements is compliant for an encyclopedic entry . On the other hand, although it might be marginally appropriate to note the hosting site, Cronan AG, further details on that site are details that are not pertinent to the article. Implications that come out of describing the size and importance of the site becoame a form of WP:OR becasue thay imply information that is not stated, necessary, or sourced. Noting the size of Cronan would be like noting a story on Yoani was published in the NYTimes, and then going on to say the newspaer is one of the largest in the world, with a circulation that is so large, and so on and so on....Its just not encyclopedic -as part of a research paper perhaps, but not an encyclopedia. As well the information on the site is advertising- like and as such is a form of spamming.(olive (talk) 20:37, 19 November 2009 (UTC))

Sure it is of relevance for an encyclopedic article about any author if her/his production gehts published by the New York Times, or if only the weekly of, say, Frogtown, Utah does publish it. The notoriety of Ms. Sanchez is given by the publishing venture for which she stands as owner, i.e. the website desdecuba.com and the business relationship which makes this possible, and which makes it possible that other people from outside Cuba provide versions of those articles signed Yoani Sánchez in 12 languages besides Spanish. And it is of encyclopedic interest if the address of the Yoani Sánchez as the owner of this publishing venture has an address not in Cuba, but in Spain, and that this address is excactly the address of the press spokesperson of one of the largest webhoster of Europe. This is very relevant to the encyclopedic description of Ms. Sánchez. There is a close business relationship. We don't know the nature of this relationship, i.e. what contract is at its basis, who pays whom how much (there is no advertisement income from Ms. Sánchez website), and speculation about this has no place in this Wikipedia article. But the relationship as such must not be hidden, unless this article shall prove of not having a neutral point of view by hiding important facts. --L.Willms (talk) 21:23, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Ah, the necessity of mentioning Cronan AG has to be explained: Strato is hosting millions of websites, and offers cheap webspace to small customers for personal use. But their subsidiary Cronan is different to this mass market: it is geared only to the enterprise market, and therefore it is of encyclopedic interest that Ms. Sánchez' own website and publishing venture is not hosted by this mass market entity, but by the one geared toward the big buck enterprise market. It makes a difference. --L.Willms (talk) 21:29, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

All the details about their operations can be explalned in Cronan AG's own Wikipeida article, if it has one. Most of what you're saying looks like advertising to me and unsuitable for this article, especially without a reliable source. Dreadstar ☥ 21:43, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Let me be specific, the highlighted bits are purely advertisement and add no encyclopedic value to the subject of this article:

Her Internet domain desdecuba.com is registered and hosted by Cronon AG, the subsidiary for enterprise customers and large resellers of Strato AG, Europe's second largest Web Space Provider. The contact address for that domain is the press spokesperson of Strato in Spain Address of Yoani Sanchez as Domain owner]{source}. The headquarters of Strato AG are in Berlin, Germany.

And as I point out above one source does not appear to support this content, and the other source appears to have no relation to the subject of this article at all and would be OR. Dreadstar ☥ 21:37, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Oops, you provide the URL (of a dreadful translation) of another article on Ms. Sánchez in the same issue of the same paper. This is the article which I meant. The other source shows that the address of Ms. Sánchez as owner of desdecuba.com is in fact the address of Strato's press spokesman in Spain. I have checked the facts of this newspaper article to verify it. One can look up the domain registration via domains.whois.com. --L.Willms (talk) 21:48, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

This appears to be a better source and I'm sure we can work with some of the material. We still have to be careful not to write something like the above that appears to be an advertisement. I think there's already a place in the article to mention this in an encyclopedic manner. Yes, I'm sure it's a 'dreadful translation', which is why we try to abide by WP:NONENG. Dreadstar ☥ 21:59, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Alrighty, I've added a bit about Cronon AG], that doesn't cross the line into advertisement for the company. Dreadstar ☥ 22:12, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Dreadstar, while I absolutely agree with your desire to keep Wikipedia free of advertising, I think you're making an error here. The question must be asked, "why is this information notable?" It's notable because it demonstrates that a private citizen of Cuba has some sort of relationship with a major European corporation, a highly unusual situation. To do no more than briefly mention where her site is hosted, or to add notable information only in a footnote, glosses over this and fails to inform the reader. The big question here is wording, but I think the factual information should remain. --MQDuck (talk) 02:35, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

What do you propose? I'm open to anything that's relevant, properly sourced and encyclopedic. Surely not the wording I've outlined above as being purely advertising language...(e.g. "...the subsidiary for enterprise customers and large resellers of Strato AG, Europe's second largest Web Space Provider. The contact address for that domain is the press spokesperson of Strato in Spain Address of Yoani Sanchez as Domain owner. The headquarters of Strato AG are in Berlin, Germany.") All we need to do is add pricing information and it's a full page ad for their services....so no, sorry, I don't see the removal of that as an 'error' by any stretch of the imagination!

Is it highly unusual for a private Cuban citizen to have a relationship with a major European internet corporation? Is there a source that says so in in relation to the subject of this article? I'm all for adding more information on Yoani's worldwide connections and how special they are, but the material must meet Wikipedia Policy - which the material I've removed doesn't do. Please propose something great, I want this article to be one of our very best! Heck, I nominated it for a GA review, but the edit warring to try and add this advertising material forced me to retract that nomination for the time being.[2] Dreadstar ☥ 06:25, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

I'm not so sure about wording. I'll give it some thought, but I want to make one comment right now. The information I and L.Willms feel is notable is entirely factual. No original research has been included. I think it brings up an interesting question: In what way does WP:NOR apply to the reasoning behind including entirely factual and documented information? I think that to extend the policy, beyond the content of articles, to the minds of the editors would be impossibly restrictive if applied consistently across Wikipedia. --MQDuck (talk) 21:10, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

<ec>I look forward to your proposal and the sources for it. To answer your question, WP:NOR comes into play when content is added that demonstrates the "highly unusual situation of a private citizen of Cuba having a relationship with a major European corporation", yet no sources in relation to the subject of the article are presented to show this - with no source, it would indeed be OR. That's why I asked for sources...and maybe the German source says that, but unfortunately I am limited to English and the translation of the web page isn't clear for me...so maybe I'm missing something.. As for "factual", a price list and phone numbers for the internet provider she uses would be 'factual' but it really wouldn't be proper content for the article, so we need to be cautious about adding content just because it's "factual".  :) Dreadstar ☥ 22:14, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

I originally brought up OR in regards to the deleted material, so I thought I'd better comment. OR does not mean the content is not factual or sources are not reliable or verifiable, but that the content has been synthesized or connected in a way that is not directly reflected in the source. The source must say that Yoani's association with the hosting site was significant. If we note the site, but then continue to add content about the site that is not directly related to Yoani in the source itself, we imply significance and importance, and subtly influence the reader towards some kind of understanding or position ... and that is not out job as editors. What would stop us from deciding that a newspaper is significant, and then adding information about the newspaper to elaborate the point. That kind of research and connections may be acceptable in a research paper but in an encyclopedia we are held to information that relates directly to our sources. It is not our business to decide significance in terms of content. Its up to us to find sources that say directly that the content is significant, and then and only then to add that content to the article. (olive (talk) 21:57, 20 November 2009 (UTC))

"The source must say that Yoani's association with the hosting site was significant." This is clearly not the case. Nowhere in Wikipedia is it expected that a citation back up the information and contain an argument for its notability. "It is not our business to decide significance in terms of content." But a reasonable balance must be found. Are we expected to link to a polemic regarding the notability of every fact on this site? Include the information, let the reader infer what they may, I say. --MQDuck (talk) 22:17, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

I'll try to be clearer than in my last post: Notability on Wikipedia actually refers to the topic/subject matter of the article itself, and is generally not used to describe content added after notability has been established. The suggestion has been to add content because editors think the content is significant to Yoani's story . I am saying, unless that content is directly related to Yoani herself, by the source itself, it is OR. We just need a source. (olive (talk) 22:33, 20 November 2009 (UTC))

Response from Castro:still looking

Per WP:BLP, we shouldn't leave unsourced content in a BLP article. I've added a little more information on when the questions to Castro were drafted (Nov19), but so far that's the only sourced information I have. I'm looking for a source that says Castro has not responded, but so far nothing. ( As an aside:Since it took Obama 3 months to respond and since Sanchez's questions to Castro were only left with the Cuban government on Nov 19th, it may be early to look for a response). At any rate we need a source, so I'll keep looking.(olive (talk) 18:21, 23 November 2009 (UTC))

Letter from Obama and his responces

I have concerns about the legitimacy of the letter from Obama and his responces. Can that be confirmed in some archive or website of the government of the US? For example in the blog Generacion Y (Yoani's blog) the "original" is an unsigned document with no header or indication that it comes from President's Obama's office. Previously the reference provided for the legitimacy of those words coming from Obama or at least his administration was her blog, now it is ABC news. I should say that ABC news could have simply made echo of Yoani's own claims. It has done that before without further investigation. For example ABC claimed that President Chavez (from Venezuela) said that US government caused the Haiti's earthquake while such a claim only appeared in an opinion section of a radio chain's website linked to Chavez administration. Is there a better source to be provided? Ideal would be if US government keeps some record of that response that can be checked.  franklin  23:19, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

• I have been searching and so far I haven't found any of the sources listed here as reliable sources for Wikipedia having the information.  franklin  23:47, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

ABC News is a reliable source, as is the Daily Telegraph, and per WP:V the threshold for inclusion is "verifiability not truth." While adding a primary source for the actual letter itself from the US government archives would be nice, I think these two reliable sources are sufficient to include the information. Is there some reason you are doubtful about the authenticity of the letter from Obama? I don't have any idea where to search for a government archive that might have a copy of this letter, but I do believe the sources provided are sufficient for inclusion in Wikipedia - and I don't see much of a reason to doubt the letter was sent and says what the sources say - unless they later printed a retraction that I'm missing.... It would be different if it had been reported by a source that doesn't fit WP:RS, like the The National Enquirer or The Sun, tabloids aren't reliable sources - espeically for Biographies of living persons. Dreadstar ☥ 00:29, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

• I agree with the inclusion in Wikipedia now that there are references like the Washington Post. Before it was only the blog. My personal suspicion is that it is just kind of strange that the scanned copy that Yoanis provides in her blog is a blank paper that only contains the text of the questions and the answers. It is not uncommon the opposition of the regime in Cuba and also the government in Cuba to "stretch the truth" in arguments against each other. Of course this is not reason for not including it here. I commented out that part when it was only Yoanis' blog the reference given. I wrote to the journalist, author of the Washington post article of what reference did he used. Unfortunately the topic is extremely politic and I have seen, at least ABC news "stretching the truth" in cases like this related to antagonists of the US government like Venezuela and Cuba (e.g. the case of Chavez-US-Haiti-and-the-Earthquake).  franklin  00:48, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Oh, I see, yes, I totallly agree with you. Thanks for bringing that up and giving me the nudge to find better sources.. :) Dreadstar ☥ 03:03, 1 February 2010 (UTC)