Odenwald

August 2007

Sten Odenwald

Dear Odenwald, I noticed you created the above article, and I'd like to have you review the conflict of interest policy, which states that you should not edit or create articles about yourself, your family, or friends, or company affiliations, as you would be unable to edit them neutrally. Neutrality is one of the core policies of Wikipedia, and I'd respectfully request that you review them all.

Another policy that you need to be aware of is the notability policy. In addition, I'd like you to review what Wikipedia is not, specifically with what seems to be a mostly CV/Resume-oriented article. If you are indeed, the subject of the article, then I would request that you move the information you've added into the article's talk page, and request a neutral, third party editor review it, and add it to the article in the proper format, using the proper citation style, as per the Wikipedia manual of style.

I am a member of the Wikipedia Project Space, and I would be happy to assist you in creating a neutral, non-biased article, as this person does indeed seem to satisfy the notability requirement, but the article lacks valid reliable third-party sources. Articles about living persons have very strict policy guidelines, as covered in Biographies of living persons, and references written by the subject should generally be avoided, and instead incorporated, if relevant, within the article itself. I'd appreciate your response to this message here, simply click the "Edit" link, or the + tab at the top to discuss the issues. Thank you, ^Ariel♥Gold 20:51, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

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Sten Odenwald

Dear Odenwald, I have gone ahead and worked on the article, properly formatting it, removing irrelevant items that are considered "commentary", and formatting the "Books" section into prose, with properly formatted citations. (In a twist of Irony, I happen to own a copy of Stepping Through the Stargate, I bought it when it was first released, and it is one of those books I read over and over again.) I will continue work, but the article needs some reliable third party references, so if you are Dr. Odenwald, then it would be very helpful if you could list any publications (such as newspapers, periodicals, journals, etc.) that could be used as references. And, as I mentioned above, I'd be more than happy to collaborate on this article with you, so please feel free to respond here, or to contact me via my talk page by clicking on my last name. Thank you, (and again, welcome!) ^Ariel♥Gold 22:09, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Thank you

Dr. Odenwald, thank you for getting back to me so quickly! As you probably have noticed, I did indeed trim quite a bit of what we here on Wikipedia, call "cruft", as it is most likely not verifiable (such as the stories of you and your father, your childhood hobbies, etc.). However, if there is an interview you've done out there we could use as a reference for some "personal background" story, that would really give the article some depth. First though, we will definitely need to get some good references for the main things, these being: Educational history, Career history, and the projects you work on. I'm more than sure that you've been interviewed a number of times, so perhaps you can point me in the direction of some articles that would help. Regarding the biographies of living persons policy, while it mostly pertains to negative unsourced statements, it really is a very firm policy that biographies have reliable sources, and I'm also sure you understand. Unfortunately, Alan Lightman's article seems to have the same issues, and judging from the history of edits, and the pattern those edits have, I'd guess that Dr. Lightman is editing his own article, as well. The fault really isn't his, or yours for assuming that's okay, I think the fault lies within the lack of instruction given to new editors, unless they do something wrong, or they take the time to do some serious reading into the Help pages. And, there really is not much that can be done about that, which is why there are editors like myself, who do what we call "Recent Changes Patrol". This way, we can flag articles for possible problems, advise new article authors, and when needed, revert vandalism.

All of that aside, I do think that if you speak to Dr. Lightman, you may wish to relate the importance of the Conflict of Interest policy, as it is a pretty serious one (for reasons I'm sure you can understand).

Now, let's get down to work! I've trimmed so much from the article that it is bare bones, basically the facts, and we need to get it filled out to reflect your personality a bit better! (Ironically, when you first created Ask The Astronomer, I communicated with you regarding adding a selection of your answers onto my own website's Astronomy section. Small world, eh?) So, I'll do some digging with Google, and if you happen to keep a list of the publications you've been in, that would most definitely help. I think as far as the journal publications, they are really superfluous, simply due to the sheer volume of them. They definitely deserve a mention though, such as "Dr. Odenwald has been published widely in Scientific journals, such as ..." and then list 4-5. Best to list the major ones, as we'd likely have a Wikipedia article about the journal we could link to.

So, while I'm sure you're quite busy, I'll await your reply, and please feel free to reply here if you like, as the conversations can remain on one page, thus eliminating the fragmentation that can happen when using two talk pages. I'll have this on my "watched" list, and see when you've updated it. And I hope you have a wonderful day! ^Ariel♥Gold 20:11, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Oh, photograph issues

You'll need to get the copyright information on your photo, Image:StenOdenwald.jpg as soon as you can, or it risks being deleted. Wikipedia is pretty firm on copyright issues, so photos that have no copyright rationale are gone fairly quickly (7 days). If you took the picture, or if you own the rights to it, it shouldn't be a problem. If it is a book jacket photo, there may be issues with needing the permission of the publisher, the truth is I'm not deeply familiar with the image tags, so I'd just recommend that you read the links over on the photo to determine what tag is the proper one. Hope that helps, ^Ariel♥Gold 20:42, 30 August 2007 (UTC)