User talk:Mathsci/Archive 32

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Questions

I see that my recent edit regarding Kaczynski's early life has violated the WP:NPOV policy. How may I include information regarding his early life in such a way that is not perceived as "biased" by Kaczynski, or the high school student(s) who placed him in a locker, or the several peers that could attest to his friendlessness according to this policy? After all, these are pertinent events, and there are already student quotes in the article. How may I go about blending such content in with the rest?

Kind regards,

--Edd Wesson (talk) 04:12, 14 March 2022 (UTC)

Please use the article talk page. For me, there were two problems:
(a) in general as an editor your edits fall into the category single purpose account, with edits only to articles related to serial killers;
(b) for the section "High school" in the BLP of TK, all of the press articles (Washington Post, New York Times and Chicago Tribune), were already available some while back, yet you created a non-neutral spin on the material which was unhelpful and inaccurate.
Thus one of the press articles mentioned en passant that a photo of TK showed his hairstyle as uncombed, but not "unkempt"; similarly he was not described as a "recluse", quite the opposite. Other editors have not piled on negative adjectives as you have done at every opportunity. The word "egghead" was used by reporters; clearly TD skipped a year, so had a more juvenile attitude. But TD was not unkempt at that stage (cf George Bergman's UC Berkeley photo). Your cherry-picked alteration of the narrative gradually gave a deliberately distorted version, which was not neutral and appeared to be "contentious".
As the rubric indicates at top of the article talk page, WP:BLP requires that editors adhere to certain rules, even for convicted prisoners. The status of being a WP:FA under "pending changes" review implies that the article is under constant surveillance by other editors and every edit checked. Hence issue (b). Returning to (a), is there an explanation why your only edits on WP have concerned serial killers (including Scottish Denis Nilsen)? TD was not a unabomber at High School, at Harvard or at UC Berkeley; using "unabomber" as the header on my user talk page was unhelpful. But please answer my question about your fixation with serial killers. Thanks, Mathsci (talk) 08:14, 14 March 2022 (UTC)
Collapsing comments
Not particularly, as I do have a number of edits on other pages pertaining to bands such as Those Poor Bastards; that being said, my primary edits lie in true crime, yes. Hence my predominate presence on these pages, in contrast with others. I have made substantial changes to the Shawn Grate, William Bonin, and Those Poor Bastards pages. With the final article mentioned, there is substantial and significant information regarding the lead singer's childhood (an isolated and friendless one) that I find to be pertinent to shaping who he later became. In this same regard, I am aware that subject's social isolation was absolutely instrumental in forming his antisocial development.
The problem with my Dennis Nilsen edit is that there is a general consensus that Nilsen is not to be trusted on account of his own revisionism of his life; otherwise, they would have been fine edits. The editor who reverted that edit, in fact, was very active in helping me begin as an editor and daily present in contributions on the William Bonin article. Perhaps I can go about it in a more neutral manner, excluding the reported opinions of various students, but it is more than obvious that these events bear significance to subject as here he was mentioning the incidents decades later to his little brother. Not to mention that various students are quoted in the section, anyhow! I began editing with the Bill Bonin article; I then began noticing a great lack of detail in biographies of serial killers that were absolutely pertinent to their crimes, much like my recent edit with subject's.
In time, I hope to make great contributions to the Peter Bellamy article. My edits are not exclusive to true crime, but are predominately so. Sometimes my edits require some sort of overview from other editors, and sometimes even require reverting as yes, I do make mistakes and admittedly on several occasions! But I truly do not feel this is inaccurate to how events occurred regarding subject's early life. I will see if I can make a edit that solely pertains to significant facts.
Kind regards
--Edd Wesson (talk) 14:26, 14 March 2022 (UTC)
In fact, upon reviewing my edits in contrast with the "Childhood" section of the page, it is almost near identical in regard to the supposedly "biased" coverage of subject and his elementary social rejection! Perhaps I am wrong, but I think my edit was completely fine in regard to the tone set by the previous editors. If it is my interest in convicted murderers that is—admittedly a contributing factor on your part—off-putting, then please, feel free to express again. But this edit was by no means biased.
And are you implying subject was not a recluse? Have you read Every Last Tie: The Story of the Unabomber and His Family? If not, I highly recommend you do, as it details subject's active avoidance of others in his teenage years, including close relatives who had come to visit. He was highly reclusive, and the product of an extremely awkward and intellectually pressured upbringing. If there is a problem regarding my edits, then surely we must apply the same to "Childhood" and any other such edit that paints subject as anything resembling a loner. Clearly, he was a popular, active student and social gianthighly improbable in the face of various sources.
I don't want to come across as ranting or inappropriate, but I fail to see why this would warrant a revert. My Nilsen edit, however, is understandable in the face of Nilsen's revisionism of his own past. I see no such thing with subject; if anything, he is highly embarrassed of his social failures as is evidenced by his insistence of denying the significance of the Murray experiments. But in spite of this, the truth is what matters, and by this principle are we lead as editors.
Kind regards once more,
--Edd Wesson (talk) 15:10, 14 March 2022 (UTC)

According to the statistics of their edit history[1], the OP's edits have almost all been to articles on serial killers. Unfortunately BLP trumps "true crime". Ted Kaczynski is a WP:FA and a WP:BLP. Making substantial changes without requesting guidance at the article talk page is not how wikipedia functions—wp:consensus is required. If need be, a posting on WP:BLPN can be made. As suggested before, please use Talk:Ted Kaczynski, not my user talk page. Thanks, Mathsci (talk) 15:29, 14 March 2022 (UTC)