PerseusMeredith

Welcome!

Hi PerseusMeredith! I noticed your contributions and wanted to welcome you to the Wikipedia community. I hope you like it here and decide to stay.

As you get started, you may find this short tutorial helpful:

Learn more about editing

Alternatively, the contributing to Wikipedia page covers the same topics.

If you have any questions, we have a friendly space where experienced editors can help you here:

Get help at the Teahouse

If you are not sure where to help out, you can find a task here:

Volunteer at the Task Center

Happy editing! Sideswipe9th (talk) 22:11, 6 October 2022 (UTC)

Discretionary sanctions alert - gender and sexuality

This is a standard message to notify contributors about an administrative ruling in effect. It does not imply that there are any issues with your contributions to date.

You have shown interest in gender-related disputes or controversies or in people associated with them. Due to past disruption in this topic area, a more stringent set of rules called discretionary sanctions is in effect. Any administrator may impose sanctions on editors who do not strictly follow Wikipedia's policies, or the page-specific restrictions, when making edits related to the topic.

To opt out of receiving messages like this one, place {{Ds/aware}} on your user talk page and specify in the template the topic areas that you would like to opt out of alerts about. For additional information, please see the guidance on discretionary sanctions and the Arbitration Committee's decision here. If you have any questions, or any doubts regarding what edits are appropriate, you are welcome to discuss them with me or any other editor.

Sideswipe9th (talk) 22:12, 6 October 2022 (UTC)

Query

Given your apparently strong opinions on the GENSEX topic area, I was wondering if you have - or previously had - another account on English Wikipedia? Newimpartial (talk) 23:46, 6 October 2022 (UTC)

November 2022

Hello, I'm Moops. I wanted to let you know that one or more of your recent contributions to Drag Queen Story Hour have been undone because they did not appear constructive. If you would like to experiment, please use your sandbox. If you have any questions, you can ask for assistance at the Teahouse or the Help desk. Thanks. — Moops ^⋠T⋡ 02:38, 1 November 2022 (UTC)

Your edit appeared to be vandalism, fix the basic spelling and such, and restore the edit if it is in fact valid and sourced... this wasn't a good start, "I’m 2017 and 2018..." — Moops ^⋠T⋡ 03:14, 1 November 2022 (UTC)

My mistake. Sorry, I fixed it. PerseusMeredith (talk) 14:00, 1 November 2022 (UTC)

What pseudoscience is and isn't

Hi, PerseusMeredith, and welcome to Wikipedia! I noticed this comment of yours at the ROGD Rfc:

If there are additional studies that disprove the theory then I think we can label it pseudoscience.

This represents a fundamental misunderstanding of what pseudoscience is and isn't. Disproven scientific theories are not pseudoscience, they are incorrect science, wrong science, disproven science, but they are still scientific; they are just wrong. You've heard of the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe, which is accepted by most cosmologists, right? Before the Big Bang theory, there was the Steady state theory of the universe, which was created and explained by Alfred Einstein after he published his theories of special and general relativity. Virtually all theoretical physicists and cosmologists now consider the Steady state theory to be incorrect; nevertheless, it is one of Einstein's scientific theories, and most certainly is not pseudoscience. It just happens to be a scientific theory that is wrong.

Oversimplified, the distinction is this: if you use well-accepted scientific methods and tools to come up with a theory, then the theory is a scientific theory. The theory might be true, the theory might be false, it might be that we will never know if it is true or false. But if the theory employs the accepted principles and methods of science, then it is scientific regardless if it is true or false.

On the other hand, a pseudoscientific theory is one that does *not* use accepted principles and methods of science. An example of this is homeopathic remedies, in which prepared treatments which contain zero molecules of active ingredient are claimed to affect health anyway, because of "water memory", i.e., the idea that the liquid retains some "memory" of the molecules that used to be there, even though they aren't anymore. This is pseudoscience, because no molecules means no effect, period; there is nothing in physics or chemistry that could describe how a substance which contain zero quantity of an ingredient could treat an illness because of "memory" of the molecules. Fortune-telling is another example. Note that just like a scientific theory can be right or wrong, so can a pseudoscientific theory turn out to be correct or incorrect: even if someone's fortune foretold turns out to be 100% accurate, it still remains pseudoscience because it doesn't employ the principles and methods of science.

Does this make sense? I hope it clarifies why disproving ROGD theory won't turn it into pseudoscience if it wasn't pseudoscience before; either it's pseudoscience or it isn't, and whether the theory turns out to be correct or not, has no bearing on that question. That said, in an Rfc, it is not for us, as Wikipedia editors, to give *our opinion* on whether something is, or isn't pseudoscience. Very unfortunately, numerous editors in that Rfc seem to have felt that they were being called on to offer their personal opinion about whether ROGD is or isn't pseudoscience (maybe because of the way the section header was titled), but that's *not* what this (or any) Rfc is about. What we as editors must do in any Rfc is to assess what the majority of reliable sources have to say about an Rfc question, and if that happens to be the opposite of what we personally believe, then we have to vote against our own opinion. (I'll follow this message with a standardized message about pseudoscience.) I hope this helps, and once again, welcome to Wikipedia! Mathglot (talk) 02:48, 4 November 2022 (UTC)

Thanks Mathglot, I very much appreciate this thoughtful explanation. This makes sense to me. PerseusMeredith (talk) 10:49, 5 November 2022 (UTC)

A standardized message for all editors contributing to articles and discussions about pseudoscience

Here's the message I promised in the section above. Please read it, and follow the links. Thanks!

This is a standard message to notify contributors about an administrative ruling in effect. It does not imply that there are any issues with your contributions to date.

You have shown interest in pseudoscience and fringe science. Due to past disruption in this topic area, a more stringent set of rules called discretionary sanctions is in effect. Any administrator may impose sanctions on editors who do not strictly follow Wikipedia's policies, or the page-specific restrictions, when making edits related to the topic.

To opt out of receiving messages like this one, place {{Ds/aware}} on your user talk page and specify in the template the topic areas that you would like to opt out of alerts about. For additional information, please see the guidance on discretionary sanctions and the Arbitration Committee's decision here. If you have any questions, or any doubts regarding what edits are appropriate, you are welcome to discuss them with me or any other editor. Thanks, Mathglot (talk) 02:55, 4 November 2022 (UTC)

Introduction to contentious topics

You have recently been editing post-1992 politics of the United States and closely related people, which has been designated a contentious topic. This standard message is designed as an introduction to contentious topics and does not imply that there are any issues with your editing.

A special set of rules applies to certain topic areas, which are referred to as contentious topics. These are specially-designated topics that tend to attract more persistent disruptive editing than the rest of the project and have been designated as contentious topics by the Arbitration Committee. When editing a contentious topic, Wikipedia’s norms and policies are more strictly enforced and Wikipedia administrators have special powers in order to reduce disruption to the project.

Within contentious topics, editors should edit carefully and constructively, refrain from disrupting the encyclopedia, and:

adhere to the purposes of Wikipedia;

comply with all applicable policies and guidelines;

follow editorial and behavioural best practice;

comply with any page restrictions in force within the area of conflict; and

refrain from gaming the system.

Editors are advised to err on the side of caution if unsure whether making a particular edit is consistent with these expectations. If you have any questions about contentious topics procedures you may ask them at the arbitration clerks' noticeboard or you may learn more about this contentious topic here. You may also choose to note which contentious topics you know about by using the {{Ctopics/aware}} template.

Doug Weller talk 21:41, 2 March 2023 (UTC)

August 2023

Please do not add commentary, your own point of view, or your own personal analysis to Wikipedia articles. Doing so violates Wikipedia's neutral point of view policy and breaches the formal tone expected in an encyclopedia. Thank you. Acroterion (talk) 01:56, 7 August 2023 (UTC)

Thanks Acroterion, I appreciate the reminder. I don't believe I added my own point of view. The first edit that you undid referenced Megan Rapinoe's own tweets without any of my own commentary. The second edit referenced the SPLC's as a left-leaning organization. This is not my own point of view (see below) and I don't think the SPLC would disagree.

https://www.allsides.com/news-source/southern-poverty-law-center-media-bias PerseusMeredith (talk) 12:31, 7 August 2023 (UTC)

November 2023

Please do not add commentary, your own point of view, or your own personal analysis to Wikipedia articles, as you did to Genocide of Indigenous peoples. Doing so violates Wikipedia's neutral point of view policy and breaches the formal tone expected in an encyclopedia. Over the past few days you have repeatedly removed the term "genocide" from discussions of deaths of Native Americans resulting from European conquest and colonization, claiming that the term is not supported by sources, despite every instance you removed being shown to be adequately sourced. If you do not immediately stop this obvious POV editing, you will be blocked. Ivanvector (^Talk/_Edits) 19:19, 21 November 2023 (UTC)

"Simultaneously, wars and atrocities waged by Europeans against Native Americans also resulted in hundreds of thousands to millions of deaths. Mistreatment and killing of Native Americans continued for centuries, in every area of the Americas, including the areas that would become Canada, the United States, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Chile. In the United States, some scholars (examples listed below) state that the American Indian Wars and the doctrine of manifest destiny contributed to the genocide, with one major event cited being the Trail of Tears."

There is no citation. Please tell me how a statement with no citation is "adequately sourced."

Also, by "repeatedly" you must mean twice. The first time it wasn't cited and then new citations were included which were much better. PerseusMeredith (talk) 19:35, 21 November 2023 (UTC)

August 2024

Hello, I'm Raladic. I noticed that you made a comment on the page Talk:World Professional Association for Transgender Health that didn't seem very civil, so it may have been removed. Wikipedia is built on collaboration, so it's one of our core principles to interact with one another in a polite and respectful manner. If you have any questions, you can leave me a message on my talk page. Thank you. Raladic (talk) 00:22, 27 August 2024 (UTC)

I disagree it was uncivil. Pointing out editing that is not from a neutral point of view Wikipedia editors are supposed to edit from a Neutral Point of View. A quick review of your edits show that you take down virtually all comments that reflect negatively on certain aspects of transgender healthcare trends, even if they are cited by the NY Times and Economist. By contrast, citations from HRC and SPLC were left up.

How many citations to the Cass Report have you made? How is it collaborative to have a group of editors from a certain political persuasion police content that disagrees with their worldview? PerseusMeredith (talk) 01:43, 27 August 2024 (UTC)

Wikipedia and copyright

Hello PerseusMeredith! Your additions to McKinsey & Company have been removed in whole or in part, as they appear to have added copyrighted content without evidence that the source material is in the public domain or has been released by its owner or legal agent under a suitably free and compatible copyright license. (To request such a release, see Wikipedia:Requesting copyright permission.) While we appreciate your contributions to Wikipedia, it's important to understand and adhere to guidelines about using information from sources to prevent copyright and plagiarism issues. Here are the key points:

• Limited quotation: You may only copy or translate a small portion of a source. Any direct quotations must be enclosed in double quotation marks (") and properly cited using an inline citation. More information is available on the non-free content page. To learn how to cite a source, see Help:Referencing for beginners.
• Paraphrasing: Beyond limited quotations, you are required to put all information in your own words. Following the source's wording too closely can lead to copyright issues and is not permitted; see Wikipedia:Close paraphrasing. Even when paraphrasing, you must still cite your sources as appropriate.
• Image use guidelines: In most scenarios, only freely licensed or public domain images may be used and these should be uploaded to our sister project, Wikimedia Commons. In some scenarios, non-freely copyrighted content can be used if they meet all ten of our non-free content criteria; Wikipedia:Plain and simple non-free content guide may help with determining a file's eligibility.
• Copyrighted material donation: If you hold the copyright to the content you want to copy, or are a legally designated agent, you may be able to license the text for publication here. Please see Wikipedia:Donating copyrighted materials.
• Copying and translation within Wikipedia: Wikipedia articles can be copied or translated, however they must have proper attribution in accordance with Wikipedia:Copying within Wikipedia. For translation, see Help:Translation § License requirements.

It's very important that contributors understand and follow these practices. Persistent failure to comply may result in being blocked from editing. If you have any questions or need further clarification, please ask them here on this page, or leave a message on my talk page. Thank you. — Diannaa (talk) 18:59, 30 August 2024 (UTC)

September 2024

There is currently a discussion at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents regarding an issue with which you may have been involved. Thank you. —Locke Cole • t • c 20:48, 8 September 2024 (UTC)