User talk:Isoptera

Welcome!

Hello, Isoptera, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or place {{helpme}} on your talk page and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Again, welcome!

signatures

Hello - thanks for your contributions to articles like Carboniferous and others - nice additions. Just a note to let you know that we don't sign in the article space - only add your signature on talk pages. Cheers Geologyguy (talk) 01:09, 28 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

don't sign mainspace pages

Thank you for your contributions to Wikipedia. I've noticed that you've been adding your signature to some of your article contributions, such as you did to potassium. This is a simple mistake to make and is easy to correct. For future reference, the need to associate edits with users is taken care of by an article's edit history. Therefore, you should use your signature only when contributing to talk pages, the Village Pump, or other such discussion pages. For a better understanding of what distinguishes articles from these type of pages, please see What is an article?. Again, thanks for contributing, and enjoy your Wikipedia experience! Also, please note that 'some guy's website' isn't a reliable source. Thanks. WLU (talk) 02:35, 11 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Again, signatures - and NOR

Like the previous editors, I would like to remind you that there is no need to sign either articles nor edit summaries. The only place where you should put "~~~~" is at the conclusion of a post on a talk page.

Could I also ask you to be aware of our original research policy? Your edits to rheumatoid arthritis (and several other articles) emphasising a link with potassium all attribute properties to potassium that are not generally recognised. You may even have studies (from the 1970s) to support your edits, but I can assure you that very few rheumatologists will give a second thought about potassium status in RA. Likewise, the vast majority of cases of gout have absolutely nothing to do with lead poisoning, which has a large number of other symptoms (such as polyneuropathy, abdominal pain, Burton's line and an abnormal blood film). Wikipedia is meant to reflect the current thinking on these conditions, not an aggregation of weird & wonderful results reported in the past. JFW | T@lk 22:06, 17 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You do not have to assure me that rheumatologists ignore potassium. For 40 years I have been trying almost without success to gain their attention. However, that they have been ignoring valid research that has been buried under hundreds of thousands of reports is immaterial. Also the fact that some of these articles are 30 or 40 years old is not material either. We have no reason to believe those researchers were genetically inferior so short a time ago on the evolutionary tree or that they were dishonest, drunk, or insane back then. All that is material is valid observations, experiments, measurements, and/or epidemiological studies, preferably more than one, but at least one performed with reliable equipment. These reports were not “weird”. To the contrary, they were rather prosaic.

I would have thought that a section labeled "Research" would have been a suitable place to post valid information with a view to fostering future research (a prime function of the value of Wikipedia in general anyway), especially since it was empty. If I was mistaken, then continue the deletion. However before you do, perhaps you should read http://charles_w.tripod.com/arthritis3.html and http://charles_w.tripod.com/potassium.html first.

Lead poisoning has been established as having a high probability of causing gout. Perhaps it is not as certain that as that the sun arises in the east, but certainly more certain than that rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease (whatever that is). That lead can cause more symptoms than gout is quite plausible. Indeed, I would be skeptical of anyone who proposed otherwise. That there could be more than one poison causing gout I would also find plausible as you suggest, especially since I have a strong hunch that something in automobile enamel fumes triggered gout in me for awhile several years ago. If additional poisons were established, I would hope they would be posted in Wikipedia.

I am still confused about signing edits. Am I to understand that Wikipedia can read my mind and know just who is making a post? Should I be signing in the box that requests a summary of the post? If not where? Is putting “ = isoptera “ after the Isoptera (talk) 19:02, 18 December 2007 (UTC) customary?[reply]

There is no need to leave your name. The wiki knows it's you, and your name is logged in the page history even if you don't sign the edit summary box.

To go back to your comments, the fact that you "have been trying almost without success to gain [the] attention [of rheumatologists]" is highly indicative that your views are not mainstream, and would not be included in any encyclopedia article (even Wikipedia). The policies WP:NOR and WP:WEIGHT, which are very important in deciding what needs mentioning, are very clear on this.

I think you are mistaken that Wikipedia should map out avenues for future research. That is the job of reviewers in medical journals. Exceptions could be made if we would quote these reviewers as a reliable source. JFW | T@lk 22:30, 18 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

WP:TALK

Hi,

You'd be doing yourself and your co-correspondents a favour if you read WP:TALK and formatted your reply accordingly - it can get hard to distinguish your opinions from others' if you don't space like more experienced contributors. WLU (talk) 19:07, 18 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Crap, that wasn't a minor edit. You may also want to post a notice to Jfdwolff on his talk page to let him know that you've posted a reply - I'll be the last person to appear on his watchlist for this page and he may not check up on it. --WLU (talk) 19:09, 18 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]