User talk:Cgarza3

English 2000

Welcome to Wikipedia! Don't forget to post a link to our course page on your user page. The course page has the instructions. Josef Horáček (talk) 20:21, 6 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Hello Cgarza3, the article Psychokinesis is on my watchlist so I happened to see it listed as your class assignment, which led me to look at User:Cgarza3/sandbox. I'm not an administrator, just an editor who has been volunteering at Fringe Theories Noticeboard for a number of years now. I'm hoping you'll take the time to read through our core policies regarding the treatment of fringe science/paranormal concepts and the weight given to them, particularly WP:PROFRINGE and WP:FRIND. Some of the sources you are considering adding to the article such as Journal of Scientific Exploration and the Journal of Spirituality and Paranormal Studies are not considered to be sufficiently reliable or independent to be used as authoritative sources. Please feel free to ask me any questions on my Talk page. Best regards. - LuckyLouie (talk) 15:49, 13 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you @LuckyLouie: for your feedback, I looked through the policies and reviewed my references and was wondering if there were other sources I should avoid. I am editing this article for a class assignment and will continue to edit throughout the semester, I just want to be sure the content I enter meets the standards set by Wikipedia. I am going to locate other references to replace the journals you felt were problem.. I am also open to any suggestions and other feedback, thank you!Cgarza3 (talk) 16:58, 20 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, I just wanted to make sure you understood that Wikipedia is a mainstream encyclopedia and Wikipedia's neutral point of view does not require giving equal weight and credibility to both fringe scientific views and mainstream scientific views. The article as it is reflects the status of parapsychology as a fringe scientific pursuit, and so we marginalize in space and prominence this "minority understanding" and limit coverage of the parapsychology views and opinions to ones that are referenced by reliable third parties in objective sources. Note that "Using Psychokinesis to Explore the Nature of Quantum Randomness" published by the American Institute of Parapsychology (AIP), and the piece by parapsychologist Adrian Parker may not meet our standards as reliable objective sources. I just took a quick look through Google Scholar for sources on psychokinesis: it's tough to find anything not published by parapsychologists or fringe scientists. The subject really is marginalized by the mainstream (as is reflected in our article). Good luck. - LuckyLouie (talk) 17:33, 20 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]