Talk:Thomas (Robert) Cochrane

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Quality issues

I have increasing concerns about the quality of this article. I have recently come across a copy of one of the references, "Scotland's Story" by Marshall, it describes itself as "a history of Scotland for boys and girls" and was written in 1905. I don't think we can treat a work like this as an important source for an encyclopedia article. PatGallacher 22:36, 12 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

In view of the concerns I raised earlier I propose to substantially reduce the size of this article, unless anyone objects. PatGallacher (talk) 20:39, 21 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I had the same concerns as those above dating back to 2007, but in 2021. For that reason I deleted a long paragraph of what I consider unhistorical and unbiographical material based on simply extracting Pitscottie's account. See diff at [[1]]. This material was subsequently restored with the comment "Please improve the encyclopedia by building it rather than deleting material considered too difficult for readers." I would argue that I didn't delete material I considered 'too difficult'. I deleted material which is non biographical and clearly established by reputable scholars to be fictional. Much as we might like colourful 16th century accounts, this is an encyclopedia, and they deserve no more prominence than a low quality hearsay-based account of Disraeli written in 2022 would deserve to receive major space in his biography. I haven't restored my edits, because life is too short, but if one is going to justify lengthy extracts from Pitscottie's account, you need to put it in context of all the other 16th century accounts and a proper assessment of their various merits and lack thereof.Benmoreassynt (talk) 20:13, 12 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Jesters

Should Robert Cochrane be considered in the context of medieval jesters - a person from outside the established roles allowed to comment and advise? Jackiespeel (talk) 10:39, 13 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

No, because Cochrane was not a jester and nobody claimed he was. Benmoreassynt (talk) 20:12, 12 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]