Talk:Maxine Robinson

"Multiple issues" tag

Please see the edit history of this article for summaries of the problems with the current version. The creator of the page is reverting all edits to the original article. I don't have time for an edit war, so am hoping the community can help. 2A02:C7C:6468:C900:3504:681C:4BEA:6F06 (talk) 20:01, 26 May 2023 (UTC)

I agree that the article has a number of WP:POV issues, not to mention that it's a WP:BLP. The problems were far too great to keep as-is and discuss first, as the alternative to reverting would have been nominating it as {{db-attack}} DFlhb (talk) 12:37, 27 May 2023 (UTC)

IP editor concerns

Hi there 2A02:C7C:6468:C900:3504:681C:4BEA:6F06, I can see you are not content with the article as it stands, but could you perhaps please further elaborate on your concerns here instead of resorting to commenting on the contributor [1], [2]? Some of your previous edits were, in my view, somewhat unproductive - for example sources show she was imprisoned at Durham. Yes the prison was closed in the final years of her sentence, but for the vast majority of her imprisonment she was there, so removing it from the place of imprisonment section seems unnecessary. Structuralists (talk) 22:45, 26 May 2023 (UTC)

Third party here. I think the most recent by @DFlhb: was wise & correct.

My best advice is to watch out for value-laden words that you present in Wikipedia's voice—see, for example, the adverbs that you were using: "she finally admitted she killed them". ("Falsely" is also one to watch out for—it's usually not needed. "She initially claimed innocence but later confessed" is just as effective and reads as more encyclopedic than "She initially falsely claimed innocence but later confessed".) Also, as DFlhb noted, a term like "serial killer" can't be used without a reliable source calling the subject a serial killer. (My guess is that your logic was that she killed multiple people and therefore meets the definition—which is reasonable enough at face value, but that type of logic runs afoul of WP:SYNTH.) That's always true, but it's especially true on biographies of living persons.--Jerome Frank Disciple 13:03, 27 May 2023 (UTC)

Well that's fair enough, I'm happy to listen to the opinions of other editors and can see why it is not valid to call her a serial killer if that's not the specific wording used in sources. Just to clarify I don't think that a multiple killer is automatically a serial killer, I'm aware that there has to be time-gaps between the murders, but Robinson did kill three people in separate incidents, and with others who have done so such as Joseph Kappen being labelled as serial killers, then it was my understanding then that is the right term in this case. I take the point though that without sources explicitly saying Robinson was a serial killer, we shouldn't describe her as such on here.

I just want to add that there are a few things still which I think should remain - such as listing HM Prison Durham as her place of imprisonment. The IP justified it's removal by saying the prison closed in 2005 - true, but she first was imprisoned in 1995 and was imprisoned there before it closed, as sources state. It seems a bit unnecessary to remove this on the basis that she must have been imprisoned elsewhere for the last three years of her 13 years' imprisonment (I am unable to find where she was imprisoned after 2005). Structuralists (talk) 14:37, 27 May 2023 (UTC)

I sort of wonder if the place of incarceration is aspect so minor that it’s not worth mentioning. I mean, someone being incarcerated is obviously big and major, but I’d venture that ‘’where’’ the incarceration is taking place is usually a minor detail (and that may explain why you can’t find a reliable source that discusses where she was confined for the final three years of her incarceration). But, assuming you have a reliable source for it, I personally wouldn’t react strongly to a sentence like She was initially incarcerated at …, but let’s wait for the IP to see what their thoughts are.-—Jerome Frank Disciple 15:39, 27 May 2023 (UTC)