Monday, December 24, 2018

DEPARTMENT OF SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION

At this special time of year, you are of course all looking for the perfect gift for moi.  So I am going to tell you what I want.  Not world peace, or an end to global warming, or successful impeachment.  I mean something you can really give to me personally.

Here goes [I cannot believe I am saying this.]  Some years ago, someone created a Wikipedia page on me.  It was fairly detailed, and also, I am afraid, a trifle complimentary.  But it mentioned where I had studied, where I had taught, my scholarship program [USSAS], and the fields to which I had made some contribution.  Then one of Wikipedia's gnomes went into it and deleted almost everything because it was not footnoted and sourced.  I felt as though I had been excised from the collective memory of the world.

For my eighty-fifth birthday, I would love it if one or several people could reconstitute the page.  "Just the facts, ma'am," as Sgt. Friday would say on Dragnet.


10 comments:

  1. Could you please leave a few pictures of yourself on your blog. I will add them to you wiki entry. Thanks.

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  2. Sourcing is required. So if I revert the page to its former unsourced glory, someone will just revert it back.

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  3. A good place for sources would be Prof. Wolff's autobiography which is available at box.net

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  4. The subject of the article is not a permissible source.

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  5. I can't seem to find the exact rules regarding using things written by a the subject of an article. Would you mind linking to it if you know where to find it?

    It seems like there are articles that do use books written by the subject. For example, Richard Feynman's article references his autobiographical books more than once. Perhaps there are rules about the kind of things that can be referenced by such sources?

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  6. Did you save the page as it was? Perhaps the technical/Wiki wizards could email
    you to get it or you could post it. It doesn't sound difficult if all they need are footnotes.
    Your lengthly CV is easily documented. Things such as the problem with extra-big single presents
    at Christmas, however, might require a notarized statement from your sister.

    How do they verify photos? Could be an opportunity there.

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  7. Alas, Jerry, I was too clueless to save the page. I thought it was there for eternity! :)

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  8. Internet Archive saved the page several times. See here:

    https://web.archive.org/web/20060113095951/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Paul_Wolff

    ...and here:

    https://web.archive.org/web/20120619063341/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Paul_Wolff

    ...for two random examples.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Wow Well done!! I will download it and try to figure out some sources one can cite for parts of it. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
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