Not4credit

Removing that class project on the "13th step"

Since both User:Desoto10 and myself felt that the class project writing about AA's 13th step does not belong here, we should, as a lesson to this student, explain why the edits were by and large reverted. The problem is the quality of the majority of references in those edits:

• The Fix is not a reliable source suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia articles, especially this one which falls under more strict rules as per WP:MEDPOP
• Ditto with Lighthouse Recovery Institute.
• Orange Papers is definitely not a reliable source. As another editor put it 'The Orange Papers' website is one anonymous guy in his bedroom who hates AA.
• The Public Slate looks to be a self-published source; articles look to be published with little or no editorial review.
• AA's own website is a reliable source when talking about AA.
• That said, using AA's own big book to conclude that AA excludes women because one woman's story was not published in the second edition is original research.
• Ditto with the notes on gender used in AA's literature. The use of male gender to mean "male or female" was normal in mid-20th-century works, and the Big Book makes it clear that "he/his/him" means male or female (such as on page 30 of the Big Book).
• Ditto with the notion that the AA literature pushes people to believe in a Christian God, again using AA's own literature as a reference, when said literature says no such thing.
• Page 58 does not say you will get drunk if you don't work the program. It says you will probably not get drunk if you throughly work the program, as long as you are honest with yourself. This is yet another example of how this editor is not correctly understanding or interpreting the AA literature.
• Laura Tompkins' blog entry in the Huffington Post is not as reliable source, as per WP:NEWSBLOG

We have kept one reference which was a medical journal article about 13th stepping, but the rest of this essay is a strong personal opinion that has no place in a widely read encyclopedia article. Defendingaa (talk) 18:08, 26 December 2015 (UTC)