User talk:SocSciHistory

Welcome!

Hello, SocSciHistory, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Unfortunately, one or more of the pages you created, such as File:Ian Shapiro.jpeg, may not conform to some of Wikipedia's guidelines, and may soon be deleted.

There's a page about creating articles you may want to read called Your first article. If you are stuck, and looking for help, please come to the New contributors' help page, where experienced Wikipedians can answer any queries you have! Or, you can just type {{helpme}} on this page, followed by your question, and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Here are a few other good links for newcomers:

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 have any questions, check out Wikipedia:Questions or ask me on my talk page. Again, welcome! Plot Spoiler (talk) 04:13, 9 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Speedy deletion nomination of File:Ian Shapiro.jpeg[edit]

A tag has been placed on File:Ian Shapiro.jpeg requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section F3 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because it is an image licensed as "for non-commercial use only," "non-derivative use" or "used with permission," it has not been shown to comply with the limited standards for the use of non-free content. [1], and it was either uploaded on or after 2005-05-19, or is not used in any articles. If you agree with the deletion, there is no need to do anything. If, however, you believe that this image may be retained on Wikipedia under one of the permitted conditions then:

state clearly the source of the image. If it has been copied from elsewhere on the web you should provide links to: the image itself, the page which uses it and the page which contains the license conditions.
add the relevant copyright tag.

If you think that the page was nominated in error, contest the nomination by clicking on the button labelled "Click here to contest this speedy deletion" in the speedy deletion tag. Doing so will take you to the talk page where you can explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. You can also visit the page's talk page directly to give your reasons, but be aware that once a page is tagged for speedy deletion, it may be removed without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag yourself, but do not hesitate to add information that is consistent with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. If the page is deleted, you can contact one of these administrators to request that the administrator userfy the page or email a copy to you. Plot Spoiler (talk) 04:13, 9 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Conflict of interest[edit]

It appears you have a WP:Conflict of interest on the page of Ian Shapiro. Please be transparent on that account, if there is point for concern.

On your suggestion, I have carefully read wikipedia's conflict of interest definition and you and the wikipedia community can rest confidently assured that no conflict of interest exists. This was a sparse page, I put many hours into my first contribution to wikipedia on a subject about which I had some knowledge. I learned from and acted on your suggestion in the first instance and I think you are right that the page is much better now. But now the consensus beyond you seems to be that the article is sufficiently well sourced and objective to meet wikipedia's (and indeed, scholarly and commercial publishing) standards. I have no idea if you yourself have a conflict of interest here, but given the ungrounded personal comments about the article's subject, you certainly sounded like someone with an axe to grind. That said, if you have objective, rational, polite, and friendly suggestions for improvement I am very open to hearing them. We are both grown ups (I assume) and we can work collaboratively without name calling. I appreciated that you edited your comments to remove the rude parts. Thanks for that. SocSciHistory (talk) 15:16, 10 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Additionally, the page reads like a WP:Advert given the many statements in on the page that are unsupported. Take just the second sentence in the lead:

"He is known primarily for interventions in debates on democracy and on methods of conducting social science research." [Source does not say that]

This makes no sense. The cited source says "Shapiro's research interests include the methodologies of the social sciences, theories of justice and democracy, the relations between democracy and the distribution of income and wealth, and the prospects for sustainable democracy in the post-communist world and sub-Saharan Africa." It's true it doesn't say explicitly that he is "known" for his research interests, but the fact that he is known is amply established by the remainder of the citations. Simple logic: 1) this scholar is well-known. 2) scholars are well known for their scholarship 3) Shapiro's scholarship centers around democratic theory and methods 4) Therefore he is known for his work on these subjects. If you put 100 political scientists in a room and asked them to respond to the question "What is Ian Shapiro known for?" They would all answer that he's known for writing about democracy and methods. This isn't even a little bit controversial as a statement, nor is it "aggrandizing" (I think that's the word you used). It is merely descriptive. Now if I had said "Ian Shapiro is the most brilliant mind of his generation" or something, I could see your concern. But I confess I don't understand why anyone would have a problem with this statement. SocSciHistory (talk) 15:16, 10 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Moreover, according to Wikipedia policy, there clearly was a copyright issue and that is why User:RHaworth deleted the image. You cannot simply claim that Ian Shapiro "gave me permission" without providing the corresponding documents. For that reason you should probably go through the WP:OTRS system. Plot Spoiler (talk) 19:28, 9 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Noted. I will try to understand the way this works. SocSciHistory (talk) 15:16, 10 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]