Talk:Brad Thor

Self AuthoredPromotional Page?

Based on the authorship history (36 glowing, unreferenced, glowing additions by Cervantes in Algiers), this fellow has an inventive view of his talent and popularity. Citations please. Save the promotion for the jacket cover. Better yet, delete this amateurish attempt at 15 seconds of fame. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.245.127.72 (talk) 04:16, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

Your ad hominem comments aside, we don't know if the subject of the article is the one making these arguably subjective edits. They could be done by a fan or a publicist. Let's focus on the problems in the content, not the personalities involved.173.49.135.190 (talk) 03:42, 18 April 2010 (UTC)

Response from Cervantes in Algiers: I don't know who you are 76.245.127.72 because you haven't created a wikipedia account. I also don't understand your beef with Brad Thor and this Wikipedia page. I noticed that you showed up after Thor blogged about Robert Young Pelton and after you made change's to Thor's page, you went over to make enhancements to Pelton's page.

You made suggestions about the descriptions of Thor's books that had previously been on the Brad Thor page. They had bbeen taken from the jacket copy of the books themselves. You suggested that they were too promotional and so I removed them. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Cervantes in Algiers (talk • contribs) 03:19, 19 April 2010 (UTC)

Cervantes, just as I noted to 76.245.127.72, ad hominem comments about other users are not appropriate at Wikipedia. You might want to familiarize yourself with Wikipedia's civility policy and the policy on communicating with other editors. The latter notes, for example, "Talk pages are for discussing content, not contributors."

As well, note that I made the comment about the book descriptions, not 76.245.127.72. Additionally, you edited a comment I made here; that is not permitted at Wikipedia, as noted on the "communicating with other editors" page linked immediately above. While correctly formatting another editor's discussion may be done, just as I did with your comment, one must not edit the discussion of another editor.

Finally, be sure to indent your response comments under the appropriate comment by using the appropriate number of full colons and sign all your comments in the discussion section with four tildas.173.49.135.190 (talk) 11:55, 19 April 2010 (UTC)

It's pretty obvious Thor is editing his own entry as "Cervantes in Algiers". Cervantes only ever edits this article or other stuff related to Thor and always adds favorable content, often unsubstantiated claims by Thor made elsewhere. It's certainly not the first time someone edited their own entry on Wikipedia. Look at Matt Sanchez. At least the smart people who are editing their own pages admit to it. When it's done anonymously it makes the endeavor much more suspect. I guess these people don't realize they're doing more harm to their image than any good with such pettiness. 64.38.197.205 (talk) 13:54, 15 June 2010 (UTC) WP:CONFLICT

Copyright problem removed

One or more portions of this article duplicated other source(s). Infringing material has been rewritten or removed and must not be restored, unless it is duly released under a compatible license. (For more information, please see "using copyrighted works from others" if you are not the copyright holder of this material, or "donating copyrighted materials" if you are.) For legal reasons, we cannot accept copyrighted text or images borrowed from other web sites or published material; such additions will be deleted. Contributors may use copyrighted publications as a source of information, but not as a source of sentences or phrases. Accordingly, the material may be rewritten, but only if it does not infringe on the copyright of the original or plagiarize from that source. Please see our guideline on non-free text for how to properly implement limited quotations of copyrighted text. Wikipedia takes copyright violations very seriously, and persistent violators will be blocked from editing. While we appreciate contributions, we must require all contributors to understand and comply with these policies. Thank you. 64.26.98.90 (talk) 19:47, 14 November 2009 (UTC)

Copyrighted material was again added to the article and I just removed it. A lot of it wasn't encyclopedic either like "Brad Thor's readers will be electrified as he employs his vast knowledge of covert operations and military intrigue to bring to life his most heart-pounding, globe-trotting thrillers yet". If someone wants to include synopses they should write them not just steal them from someplace else. They should also be synopses not purple prose hype. 64.38.197.214 (talk) 16:09, 3 September 2010 (UTC)

Promotional hyperbole

I tagged this article because significant portions of this article seem to have originated in a publisher's press releases, e.g. "brimming with the kind of ripped-from-the-headlines authenticity" and "Brad Thor. . .will keep readers glued to the pages as he once again takes them across the globe on a heart-pounding chase where the stakes are higher than they have ever been before." This sort of breathy promotional prose is blatantly unencyclopedic. I've not read any of his books so I'm not in a position to edit this article accurately. Someone needs to edit out the heavy hype. 173.49.135.190 (talk) 16:18, 12 April 2010 (UTC)

Cleanup

I've done an overall edit of the article, fixing the many footnoting problems. The footnotes still need work with each one titled.

There was an excess of subheading, so I combined sections into the biography portions.

Elements of this article still are without attribution. I've tagged accordingly.

The piece still suffers from a rather subjective slant and still needs a major overhaul. A RPL search of this author doesn't show him to have much press, notwithstanding the various claims in this Wiki article.

The lead paragraph erroneously inferred that all of his books are number-one NYT bestsellers. A check of the NYT lists shows several on the list but not all. As well, given two have not yet even been published, they could not be number-one sellers.

The JAWA report section likely raises significant Wikipedia issues, but I'll leave that to others to decide whether or not it should continue to be included. I edited to make the language more neutral.

In sum, this piece still needs more work by unbiased editors.173.49.135.190 (talk) 03:35, 18 April 2010 (UTC)

I removed the flag regarding a need for a secondary source on a poll of the "100 Best Killer Thrillers" or words to that effect because there can be no secondary sourcing on a poll. The article states clearly that the reference was based on a vote (or poll), and the poll was apparently conducted by NPR, a credible news source. One might suggest that polls are "created news" and I would agree. Nevertheless, it was not a poll taken on some random web-site of Brad Thor fans or people associated with Brad Thor. It was NPR... a major media organization.

FYI, I am not a Brad Thor fan. I have read ONE BOOK of his, "The Athena Project," which I enjoyed. I tried reading another book of his and didn't like how it started. I gave up on it. Maybe I will return to it some day.

Alex Shrugged (talk) 15:30, 17 January 2020 (UTC)

Dubious claim

The claim in the article that Thor shadowed black ops teams is highly dubious. Two sources are cited, but the verification for that claim comes only from Thor himself with no independent substantiation. The essential nature of a covert operation is that they are never disclosed to civilians; therefore, a novelist would never be allowed to "shadow" any operative team -- this is Covert Ops 101 stuff and patently suspect on its face. Simply because the subject of an article claims something does not mean it should be accepted as fact. Thor has also claimed publicly, and incorrectly, for example that Mullah Omar was secretly captured, so he's not a particularly reliable source on intelligence matters. 64.38.197.220 (talk) 03:23, 23 May 2010 (UTC)

Agreed. I tagged the claim for that reason. I imagine you found this page via the link on the intel forum where this suspect claim is being discussed at length. It's such a baldly absurd claim. Anyone familiar with intelligence ops will know it's complete nonsense. 4.230.0.118 (talk) 12:19, 23 May 2010 (UTC)

No black ops team would ever disclose their operation to a civilian writer, let alone allow him to join them on a mission. To do so would subject them to criminal prosecution under 18 USC 793 and a host of other federal laws. They would face serious jail time if convicted. It's a stupid and silly boast- the kind of thing that a guy tells a girl in a bar when trying to get her into bed. "I shadowed a black ops team" is wannabe fantasy stuff.115.124.107.54 (talk) 13:29, 23 May 2010 (UTC)

Claims are not facts

Thor makes a number of claims that have no source other than him. Those are claims, not facts. Claims can be included but they should be written as such. If author John Jones claims he was on a secret space mission to Mars, that doesn't make it true because he says it. So instead of saying "John Jones has been on secret missions to Mars" you say "John Jones has said in interviews he has been on secret missions to Mars." To accept a claim as a fact without third party substantiation is biased and violates NPOV. 4.254.221.56 (talk) 23:18, 25 October 2010 (UTC)

False Claims

Thor shadowed a black-ops team? Right, and Tom Clancy predicted 9/11. This claim should be removed from the page as it is unsubstantiated and unlikely. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.80.28.25 (talk) 15:06, 24 January 2011 (UTC)

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Infobox image

Other images from this same event are up at Wikimedia, and might work better (especially if cropped).--Artaxerxes 17:08, 8 January 2019 (UTC)

Archive talk page?

I am seeing some really old posts, almost 10 years old, just looks cluttered, anybody familiar with how to add an archive bot?MaximusEditor (talk) 03:08, 30 June 2020 (UTC)