October 2017 edit

  Hello, I'm Operator873. Wikipedia is written by people who have a wide diversity of opinions, but we try hard to make sure articles have a neutral point of view. Your recent edit to Merrill Heatter seemed less than neutral to me, so I removed it for now. If you think I made a mistake, or if you have any questions, you can leave me a message on my talk page. Thanks. Operator873CONNECT 05:33, 13 October 2017 (UTC)Reply

  Please do not add or significantly change content without citing verifiable and reliable sources, as you did with this edit to Merrill Heatter. Before making any potentially controversial edits, it is recommended that you discuss them first on the article's talk page. Please review the guidelines at Wikipedia:Citing sources and take this opportunity to add references to the article. Donner60 (talk) 04:10, 28 October 2017 (UTC)Reply

Please do not add content to Wikipedia based on your personal experience, knowledge or opinion. Wikipedia is based on reliable, verifiable, neutral (third-party) sources, which must be cited if an entry is challenged or is likely to be challenged. Without a reliable, verifiable source, anyone could claim to be anybody with a connection to the article and insert unverifiable information based on that point. (In this case, is there not an obituary on a web site?) See especially Wikipedia:No original research, Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources, and Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not. Also see: Wikipedia:Citing sources, Help:Footnotes, Wikipedia:Verifiability; Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons, Wikipedia:Five Pillars, Wikipedia:Words to watch and Wikipedia:Neutral point of view. You may express comments about the content of the article and needed improvements or ask for comments or help on the article's talk page. See Help:Introduction to talk pages, Help:Using talk pages and Wikipedia:Talk page guidelines. For further information about contributing to Wikipedia, see: Getting started; Introduction to Wikipedia; Wikipedia:Simplified ruleset; and Wikipedia:Simplified Manual of Style. Thank you. Donner60 (talk) 04:16, 28 October 2017 (UTC)Reply
In response to the question on my talk page: yes, you are allowed to edit the article. However, you are not allowed to insert information, or references, solely based on your personal knowledge. Neither reviewers nor readers can be sure that someone asserting to be a certain person, is in fact that person. Nor can they simply take that person's word for an edit which could be subject to question or dispute. I suspect that you are who you say you are and that your edit is valid. Nonetheless, many invalid or unverifiable entries are made to articles every day. So the rules need to be followed in all cases. Is there not a newspaper web page or other web page that you can cite for these facts? These would be the most likely verifiable sources but certainly there are others as the articles on referencing above indicate. I think that any other reviewer or editor would give the same opinion. However, you can put comments on the talk page or seek an opinion or help on other Wikipedia pages if you wish. Perhaps you will get an authoritative opinion that differs from my analysis but I think that further explanation or advice would be more likely.
For further information about talk pages see Help:Introduction to talk pages, Help:Using talk pages and Wikipedia:Talk page guidelines. For further help or advice see Help:Contents and Wikipedia:Questions which provide guidance and links to pages where help can be requested on various subjects. Also see: Wikipedia:Reference desk and Wikipedia:Teahouse.