You had some harsh criticism of Wikipedia and its editors on the article's talk page because I tagged this article as needing better referencing. Someone's personal recollections about a family member are not an adequate basis for an encyclopedia article.For someone or something to be notable by Wikipedia's guidelines, such as WP:BIO and WP:ORG, there needs to be multiple instances of significant coverage by reliable and independent secondary sources such as books, magazines, scholarly articles, or reliable websites. Wikipedia's content is created and edited by volunteers, not by Wikipedia employees. Volunteers contribute many thousands of hours a year to research, write and revise articles. It might indeed require someone going to a local library or newspaper morgue, such as in Paducah, to dig out information. If there were articles in, say the "Paducah Sun Democrat" from the 1950's about Jack and his orchestra, they would improve the article. Unfortunately no Paducah paper has placed its content online so far, so it would take someone asking them or the local library, or a local historical society if they have articles or information about him. The memories of some family member or band member can't just be plopped down in this article as references. See WP:RS. They are by definition not "reliable sources" as the term is used here, even if the people and their memories are by nature trustworthy. You really are not accomplishing anything by calling other editors of the article morons and idiots, except to get yourself cautioned to remain civil and discuss the articles and references rather than the personalities of other editors. Edison (talk) 20:26, 18 September 2013 (UTC)Reply
- Eelb53, I too have a father with a Wikipedia page. And unfortunately, I cannot just write things I know about my father in that article because Wikipedia is not a publisher for primary sources. Some other publisher has to deem this information as interesting before we include it in our encyclopedia. We don't do original research, even about our own family. Also, you will find that the volunteer editors are actually willing to "go to your local library" to help you, given that many of them work in your local libraries. However, they don't respond well to insensitive comments. If you really care about this article on your family history, you will do well to spend more time on here, learn some of the editing norms, and engage editors with an assumption of Good Faith. Dkriegls (talk to me!) 22:33, 18 September 2013 (UTC)Reply
