Talk:St. Anne's Church (Middletown, Delaware)

Removed content from St. Anne’s Church

The account “russbohner” represents the Rector, Wardens, and Vestrymen of St. Anne’s Church in Middletown, Delaware. We have removed all of the content from this page that was erroneous. Please do not restore it. This article ought to be deleted. Please contact us if you have questions. Thank you. Russbohner (talk) 17:42, 3 June 2022 (UTC)

Hi @Russbohner. There are a number of problems here.

First, accounts can't be shared by a group (see Wikipedia:Username policy#Shared accounts). Does more than one person have access to the Russbohner account?

Second, since you have a conflict of interest, you should not be editing the article directly; you can use the WP:EDITREQUEST system to post requested changes here on the talk page. Also, you need to declare your COI on your user page (User:Russbohner) per the instructions at Wikipedia:Conflict of interest#How to disclose a COI. If you are employed in any way by the church, you count as a paid editor and not someone with a general COI.

Third, here is the page on our deletion process: Wikipedia:Deletion process. If the church - either the building or the organization - is notable by our standards, the page will probably not be deleted. Since it's on the National Register of Historic Places, it probably meets our standard for buildings (Wikipedia:Notability (geographic features)#Buildings and objects). It also needs to have significant coverage in reliable sources; the Historic American Buildings Survey looks pretty good, but I'm not an expert in that area. You can still try to get the article deleted if you wish, per one of the processes linked above. 97.113.167.129 (talk) 13:37, 4 June 2022 (UTC)

I give up

To all of the anonymous editors who have blocked me and reposted deleted content, you win. The information on the Old St. Anne’s page is inaccurate. I know this because I am a long time member of the church and have a copy of the official history in front of me. But because I am a member and know the history, I am unreliable because I have a COI. Okay. I tried to create an accurate St Anne’s article so that the history of the church would be available. Because the church was established in 1705 in Delaware, we have a long and interesting history. However, that history can only be told by someone with no affiliation with the church. So much for truth and accuracy. My take away from what began as a well-intentioned effort to provide accurate information is that the (anonymous) Wikipedia gatekeepers are more interested in enforcing the rules (exercising power and control) than in truth. So be it. I will not make the mistake again of trying to correct and contribute to an article about which I am informed. Neither will I continue to support Wikipedia financially. I have contributed annually because I believed Wikipedia provided a valuable service. No more. I now understand why my friends who teach do not allow citations from Wikipedia. Ah well. Russbohner (talk) 15:20, 4 June 2022 (UTC)

@Russbohner, citations to Wikipedia are rightfully not allowed because anyone is allowed to edit here and add anything they want, whether it meets WP's sourcing standards - WP:RS - or not. Editors try to ensure truth and accuracy by removing content that doesn't meet those standards. It's the sources that matter; in this way, the encyclopedia can be built by people with no personal knowledge of or affiliation with article subjects, and kept as neutral and independent as possible.

If you have access to sources that meet the standards, you can use them to request additions/changes here on the talk page. That's one of the things this space is for.

I'm not really sure what you mean by "anonymous editors". It's certainly true that most editors with accounts don't use their real names; for privacy and safety reasons, it's generally a bad idea (WP:REALNAME). 97.113.167.129 (talk) 15:39, 4 June 2022 (UTC)