Thanks, Tom. In the course of this discussion both you and Al have provided many sources for me to check and I will read them carefully to make sure they say what they are claimed to say. Thatcher131 17:17, 6 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]
- Regarding the talk pages, all edits are kept in the database unless an administrator deletes it. If something is erased from the page, it can still be accessed using the history tab on the page. Clicking on a particular entry's date and time brings up that version of the page, and if you use the radio buttons to pick two versions and use the Compare feature, you will get not only a displayed version comparison, but the url in your browser window is a permanent link to that particular page history (it's called a "diff" in wikipedia terms). The diff should be good indefinitely and anywhere (e-mail, another web page, etc). Certain legal threats however may fall into the category of edits that should be deleted by an admin, so please don't threaten any legal action within wikipedia's pages. I gave Al the same info. There is a policy, No legal threats. However as far as I know, no edits have yet been deleted.
- Also there is another policy Biographies of living people that I wasn't previously fully aware of, as this is the first time I have been this deeply involved in contested biography. Please read it carefully. It does appear that negative information is held up to a particularly close inspection. For example, the Blumka case really doesn't belong on wikipedia at all. Seckel's antique business, or whatever, is not part of his notariety (his reason for being on wikipedia). His entry should not discuss it. (If his claim to fame rested on being an antique dealer it would be a different story.) Regarding one other item you mentioned today, his Cal Tech affiliation, I have found articles in Science and Nature that include this claim, so I will be restoring it, in a modified form. True he has not published in peer-reviewed journals, but he doesn't claim so, and it's really not up to wikipedia to figure out why not. I can think of half a dozen maybes but I won't even bother to write them down. I found sufficient info on the Cornell web site alone to show that Seckel was invited to give a talk by a faculty member there and his book is used in at least one of their courses. That (plus Science and Nature) is good enough to call him an "expert" as far as I am concerned. Certainly more of an expert in how illusions are perceived than in the biology of visual cortex neurons, but that's just a matter of making sure the article is accurate.
- I can't spend any more time on wikipedia until after work. However, I appreciate your thoughtful comments. Many things, like CalTech, the contest, and "world's leading expert" just need to be carefully rewritten. I will continue to make adjustments as time permits, starting tonight. Yes, unfortunately (from your point of view) certain claims that you would like to be included can not be at this time. (Short of my flying out to California, interviewing you, and writing a book about the SCS) Thatcher131 16:29, 7 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]