My father, Tom Van Flandern, was a mainstream astronomer with impeccable credentials who supported several unorthodox theories later in his career. In addition to publishing in peer reviewed journals Tom participated in extensive usenet discussions with other noted professionals.

I am an occasional wikipedia contributor but most of my effort here is dedicated to counteracting the particularly pejorative attacks on my father by user 6324xxxx now camped on my father's biography. I believe the identity of this user is fairly transparent and that this user has a very extensive (even notorious) history of posting under their own name prior to claiming that they left wikipedia. The user has also made extensive derogatory postings about Tom outside of wikipedia.

I recognize that I am partial and have tried hard to become more conservative in approaching the article regarding my father. There are several things in the article that are flatly wrong and while I've pointed out the errors I've allowed them to remain rather than excessively edit the article myself.

I welcome discussion with anyone willing to be civil and engage in an honest dialog. Thanks -Mike