User talk:AlexJacobs1313

Frank Jacobs

Hi, and thanks for coming by to ask. I'm glad to hear you use Wikipedia to look things up, and it makes my nearly nine years here particularly worthwhile when I know that everything I and other editors do to ensure accuracy is appreciated. It's always good to hear.

There's no actual way to publicly ascertain that any of us are who we say we are — Wikipedia doesn't have a "verify" function like Twitter, and people have come here not being who they've claimed to be. For the purposes of this conversation only, I'll assume your name is Alex Jacobs and your dad was Frank Jacobs. If this is so, it's a pleasure to tell you how much I loved your dad's work growing up — I became a writer myself, mostly a journalist, though I've had the privilege on occasion of being paid for writing humor — and I recently and enjoyed read your dad's biography of William Gaines.

I gave the reason for my edit in the edit summary: "Commented out uncited personal claims, which per WP:BLP can be removed immediately. Presuming these can be cited, so not deleting for now. Deleted irrelevant personal claims, such as location of ex-wife.

If you'll click to the policy cited, WP:BLP, which stands for "Biographies of Living Persons," you'll note that Wikipedia has particularly stringent citation (footnoting) requirements for living people, since there are libel and slander issues involved, and Wikipedia takes very seriously that we can't put people's private family details on the web unless this has become public information in reliable-source publications, websites, etc. As well, Wikipedia has a policy of No Original Research, which means everything here is supposed to be cited to an existing published (print or online) source. We can't use people's personal reminiscences or claims.

Now, you'll note I did not remove most the information, but merely made it invisible for now, since I presume that sources can be found to cite most of it. If you, I or other editors can do that, then we'll have a well-documented, trustworthy article that will serve as an accurate, objective account of a notable figure's life and work. I'm afraid tangential claims unrelated to the subject itself, such as the location of an ex-wife, really don't belong here. Otherwise, this is a simple, albeit time-consuming, fix.

I hope I help, and I'll be glad to try to help further if you need, time allowing. For a quick overview, see the 5 Pillars of Wikipedia. With regards, --Tenebrae (talk) 18:54, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for the quick reply. I know my father will be thrilled to hear your comments about his writing. He's currently recuperating from surgery in an outpatient/rehab facility in Burbank where he'll be for a few more weeks I believe. We talk via phone a couple of times per week. The comments about his ex-wife (my mother) were added because they've remained close all of these years (she speaks to him as often as I do), and still consider each other close friends. So, to cite his early years seemed appropriate, just as it seemed appropriate to mention they had a child (me).

I can/will go back and read the guidelines. Thank you for pointing me in that direction. Much appreciated! AlexJacobs1313 (talk) 19:14, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

P.S. I have no idea how to create a new section, so my response to you appears to run into your response to me. Sorry about that! — Preceding unsigned comment added by AlexJacobs1313 (talk • contribs)

Also, after you leave a post, add a dash followed by four tildes (the ~ symbol) and your user name and a timestamp will appear automatically when you hit "Save page".--Tenebrae (talk) 22:43, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

And just to avoid confusion, since you mention something about Frank Jacobs' "early years" in your post above, the inappropriate content was "but still remain close friends today. [name omitted] lives in Seattle, WA while..." Whether they're friends or not and where his ex-wife lives is not encyclopedic information. We also can't use words like "today," "recently," "currently," etc., since, per WP:DATED, the encyclopedia has to be written in a timeless format. Don't worry — you'll get the hang of it! --Tenebrae (talk) 22:48, 10 March 2014 (UTC)