Babrinson77

Luther "Snake Boy" Johnson

I have (again) removed offspring details from this article. There are editing guidelines you ought to be aware of, specifically in this instance at Wikipedia:Memorial and Wikipedia:COI. Thank you,

Derek R Bullamore (talk) 13:41, 25 February 2013 (UTC)

I have removed your most recent edit on this article. Before editing further please read the editing guidelines supplied at WP:Verifiability. To be more specific, it reads "In Wikipedia, verifiability means that other people using the encyclopedia can check that the information comes from a reliable source. Wikipedia does not publish original research. Its content is determined by previously published information rather than the beliefs or experiences of its editors. Even if you're sure something is true, it must be verifiable before you can add it." Also, his (numerous) alternate names are commented upon in the article, which must follow the name of the article as in the title.

Lastly, any e-mail you may have posted, did not reach me - although, either way, my reply would be as above.

Derek R Bullamore (talk) 13:40, 9 August 2017 (UTC)

Derek is correct on this point. Wikipedia does not post unpublished and unverified claims derived from insider knowledge of an article topic's life; we post only what published sources can be shown to support. We do not include the names of notable people's children if they aren't themselves notable and aren't named by the published sources, and we do not contradict the published sources on the matter of a person's birthdate or cause of death — we repeat what the published sources say, end of story.

Our job is not to be the originating source of statements that have never previously been published in a book or a newspaper article or a magazine article about him — our job is to simply summarize what other sources have already said. We do not perform research of our own; we simply summarize research that already exists on the public record. Sometimes, yes, that may even lead us into situations where we're wrong about something — but it's not our responsibility to be "right" about anything that can't be verified by a published source. If all the published sources say X, while the real truth is Y but no published source has ever said that, then our job is to still say X even if it's wrong.

It's not our job to privilege you above what the published sources say — it's our job to privilege the published sources over unverified claims. So if you want to get his birthdate and cause of death corrected, then unfortunately you're going to have to get your alternative information published somewhere first. Then we could add it to our article — not because you said it, but because that published source verified it. Bearcat (talk) 15:03, 10 August 2017 (UTC)