User talk:Mactabby

Dear Mactabby,

I just read your response to a recent change in Concert Bands. At the moment, the Concert Band article is overwhelmingly American collegiate band director oriented. You have a perspective from the British point of view: could you add this to the article? Robertwalton 08:48, 24 February 2007 (UTC)

Hi Robert - I've made edits in the past to add relevant UK ensembles and conductors, but they've been removed, despite them being of a similar status as many of the American bands listed. My view is that the page shouldn't list individual bands at all, but should contain a link to the category listing for wind bands. That way there won't be the constant inflationary addition of red-linked directors and bands that we have at the moment. I'm not experienced enough on Wikipedia to know how to establish general agreement from other editors that that's the way to go - I suspect making that changee would just result in a revert by someone. I tried to start a discussion on the subject but you were the only response. Any thoughts? Mactabby 09:17, 24 February 2007 (UTC)

Learndirect

A {{prod}} template has been added to the article Learndirect, suggesting that it be deleted according to the proposed deletion process. All contributions are appreciated, but this article may not satisfy Wikipedia's criteria for inclusion, and the deletion notice explains why (see also "What Wikipedia is not" and Wikipedia's deletion policy). You may contest the proposed deletion by removing the {{dated prod}} notice, but please explain why you disagree with the proposed deletion in your edit summary or on its talk page. Also, please consider improving the article to address the issues raised. Even though removing the deletion notice will prevent deletion through the proposed deletion process, the article may still be deleted if it matches any of the speedy deletion criteria or it can be sent to Articles for Deletion, where it may be deleted if consensus to delete is reached. If you endorse deletion of the article, and you are the only person who has made substantial edits to the page, please tag it with {{db-author}}. →Lwalt ^♦ talk 08:42, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Thank you for responding to this matter. The impression of the article (at least from a "disinterested" reader's view) suggests that the organization is promoting services that it offers, rather than provide a balanced overview of the mission, history and other facts about the organization in addition to service offerings. However, the guidelines for NPOV and advertising/promotion of companies referred in articles apply equally to both commercial (that is, profit-making enterprises) and non-profit and non-governmental organizations alike.

I posted the {{prod}} notice instead to provide an opportunity for contributors of the article to address the issues, rather than nominate the article as a candidate for speedy deletion under blatant advertising (criteria #11) and an advertisement masquerading as article. Requests to "speedy delete" the article in many cases involve evaluations are harsher than a proposal for deletion of articles that have issues as I have noted in this case.

Again, thank you for responding, and thank you for looking into this matter. →Lwalt ^♦ talk 20:38, 14 August 2007 (UTC)