Talk:Peter Tomsen

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New content submitted by subject, Peter Tomsen

Have added four new sections to the article on Peter Tomsen and added a few more External Links.

All this material was submitted by Peter Tomsen directly. We work with Peter Tomsen at Public Affairs, the publisher of his book "The Wars of Afghanistan..."

Since this material was submitted by the Subject himself, detailed references are not absolutely necessary - See Wiki pages for equivalent authors (e.g. Steve Coll) and various U.S. Ambassadors for equivalency of this practice. In addition, most of the content is supported by references already listed.

Emily.lavelle (talk) 21:56, 10 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks Emily! Appreciate your full disclosure. I rewrote and sourced this page the morning of Tomsen's appearance on the Daily Show because the entire article was closely paraphrased and in some cases directly copied from the NU source. Glad to have input from the subject, especially in this direct and candid way. Don't be surprised to see the new stuff edited and changed mercilessly, such is the Wikipedia way. IMHO, the best single thing a publisher can get us is a set of good reliable sources independent of the subject. The other best thing would be a free-licensed photograph for use in an infobox. It would not need to be of a high resolution. By anchoring text with well-respected sources, it's easier to protect the page from vandalism and incorrect information. Please take a look at WP:COI, WP:IRS, and WP:BLP to see the sorts of challenges raised by your intended insertions. BusterD (talk) 22:13, 10 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

BusterD: Thank you for your immediate response. All valid concerns. This was done after reading the WP:COI guidelines, hence the disclosure. Actually the final submission to the page was done by a researcher, Philip Poullada who, while having done some paid research for the book, is a merciless and unbiased editor when it comes to verifying information and keeping things neutral. In fact he deleted a section that AMB Tomsen had submitted titled "Recognitions" since it puts him in a very positive light, lising all of Tomsen's US Government awards (e.g. Presidential Meritorious Service Award) but could not find references verifying them - While Tomsen undoubtedly earned every one of them for his service, we wanted to be sure that the Wiki page would not be looked at as self-promoting.

We decided to submit the material at this point because it is clear that Wiki Editors such as you will be far better in assisting getting Tomsen's page squared away than just a few of us working outside the Wiki community.Emily.lavelle (talk) 22:39, 10 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

That's appreciated. I see you've been sandboxing this for insertion. I hope you or Mr. Poullada find time to edit something you are not directly involved with. (no joke) It would be awesome if a content expert like Coll or Tomsen found time to improve articles with which they have familiarity, even under a pseudonym (as am I). I know these are busy people, but more and better expert contributors would do a great deal to improve the sparse content in the diplomatic area of Wikipedia's coverage. In any case, it's great to have the help of a publisher's representative. See if you can get us some low-res file photos for Mr. Coll and Ambassador Tomsen. I hope you don't spend too much of the rest of a lovely Saturday evening editing an encyclopedia... BusterD (talk) 23:01, 10 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]