User talk:Jason Sanford

African American lit

Moved reply to my talk page.Brian Sweeney 21:51, 1 November 2006 (CST)

Jason, I appreciate your interest in my edits to the African American literature page, but I have to admit to being annoyed with the tone of your comments. My impression was that editors would vet content, not order authors around as though they were paid staff writers. As I see it, it is my prerogative to make the changes I think appropriate and then you can exercise editorial oversight as you see fit. I do not expect to be ordered around, however, or have to seek your approval in advance for edits. If this is the way relationships between editors and authors are going to work at CZ, well then, I have grave doubts about its success. Brian Sweeney 16:20, 6 November 2006 (CST)

Brian: I'm not ordering anyone or approving your edits. While I'm an editor, I also write articles and have a strong interest in African American literature. In case you didn't know it, I essentially wrote the original Wikipedia article on African American literature, which was selected as a featured article. That said, I make no claims about owning the article and I've long thought the article could be vastly improved. And, as I mentioned in my original comment to you, I agree and support most of your edits and suggested future improvements.

When I first saw your edits to the article, I was very concerned that you'd deleted parts of the article without stating why. Instead of merely reinserting these sections, I thought I'd ask you about it. Your reasoning, and your future plans for the article, sounded good and I said so. My comments to you were essentially saying I agreed with your changes and proposed changes and would support you on your approach to the article. That is what I meant when I said "go for it."

I hope this clears things up. To repeat, I have no intention of ordering you around or anything like that (and don't plan on doing this with authors on any article). However, even though I'm an editor, I also write article and, when doing so, have to seek consensus with fellow authors. What I'd like to do is work together with you to make this the best article it can be--and your recent changes and proposed changes appear to be doing just that. Best, --Jason Sanford 08:52, 7 November 2006 (CST)

BTW, I do want to apologize for not being clear in my original message and for any misunderstanding that caused. I strongly support the Statement of Fundamental Policies, which states that "Editors will be expected to work "shoulder-to-shoulder" with authors in the wiki." My goal on writing articles is to work shoulder to shoulder with anyone willing and qualified to do the work--and you obviously are both. I have no intention of squashing anyone's work or stepping into issues UNLESS a dispute arises, and in this case since I've previously worked on the article any dispute would have to be settled by another editor to avoid a conflict of interest. Anyway, as I've said you have my full support on your edits and future plans for the article. Best, --Jason Sanford 09:08, 7 November 2006 (CST)

That is what I meant when I said "go for it." What you actually wrote was, "Go for it and work up what you can (being sure to provide the needed references)." Even aside from the fact that I have already pointed out that the statement you blame me for leaving unsourced was one I retained from your version of the article, the tone of this remark strikes me as overweening and presumptuous. I became involved with CZ to collaborate in my free time with other learned people in the production of knowledge, not to take my place in the lower ranks of some bureaucracy. It is obvious to me that what is really at issue here is your sense of ownership over the WP version of this article which, I am sorry to have to say, had serious flaws--featured article or no.Brian Sweeney 21:55, 9 November 2006 (CST)

Brian, I'm sorry to hear that's your attitude. I've explained myself and if you don't accept what I've said there is nothing else I can add. I don't know if you've ever worked on Wikipedia or any other type of wiki but discussion and consensus are at the heart of all the work here. As for the references, you did not reference a number of your edits and that is a major concern. As I said, "you need to provide references to statements as you go;" the statement you refer to was only one example I gave where you neglected references.

Anyway, I will continue to edit the African American literature article. While I don't own the article, I do enjoy working on it. As I also said, the article needs a lot of work and I hope you will continue to edit it. Finally, the best way to avoid any arguments over the article is for both of us to provide reliably sourced references to anything we add. Best, --Jason Sanford 08:27, 10 November 2006 (CST)