Jean314

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Hello Jean314! Welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. If you decide that you need help, check out Wikipedia:Where to ask a question, ask me on my talk page, or place {{helpme}} on your talk page and ask your question there. Please remember to sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. Below are some pages that you may find useful. Happy Editing! — —Centrx→talk • 00:33, 12 June 2007 (UTC) Getting Started Wikipedia Tutorial How to edit a page The five pillars of Wikipedia Manual of Style Be bold in editing How to write a great article WikiProjects Writing and editing Cite your sources Neutral Point of View Point of View Verifiability Uploading images Image use policy Getting Help New contributors' help page Where to ask a question Help Desk Frequently Asked Questions Getting along Wikiquette Civility Sign your posts Wikipedians Conflict resolution Getting technical Pages needing attention Peer review Utilities Village pump

re Usana

Hi, nice stuff you are adding - but I wonder if it is in the right place. I am not sure you can have the accounting stuff as background and then have the legal allegations and resume controversies as separate sections. I am thinking that there may have to be a section called controversies or similar where the accounting, legal challenges and resume problems could be subtitled. This would put all these items in one place and not leave WP open to complaints of undue weight. LessHeard vanU 20:26, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

Any controversies section would need to be at the end of the article, although they could be mentioned in the introduction briefly ("USANA is a blah, blah, blah.. which has recently been the subject of several controversies"), since it is initially and mainly notable as a health food/supplement provider. That way the reader gets all the usual stuff about history and product, selling methods, sponsorship etc. and then the various adverse comments. This way the controversies are placed together but without WP:Undue weight, IMO. LessHeard vanU 12:30, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

No, not bland. Just an overview. Basically the intro is the bit that a reader uses to make sure they have the right article or drags in the casual reader. Look at the intro for Oscar Wilde, his notoriety as a homosexual is dealt with in an intriguing yet non-committal way as he is rightly more notable as a playwright and wit. This is how I suggest we approach USANA.

I will see if I have spare time this weekend to work on the article, but by all means do what you think is right and see if we can improve it between us. If you see that I have finished and you think it can do with further work then go ahead - don't ask me. I have only just looked at your userpage; we have come to this page from opposite directions - you know the subject and I initially to check out POV violations - but I think we can get a decent article out of this. LessHeard vanU 19:58, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for you copying your proposed text to me; I've copied it back with a very few changes - mostly spelling and stuff. The best way of finding out if your proposed changes will fly is to drop it into the article - as long as it isn't removed by vandals or POV pushers it is likely to be altered a bit but that is what all editors should expect. If you are unsure, though, the other way is to post it in the talkpage and request other regular editors (and me!) to review it; on Wikipedia no editor has more rights than anyone else. Anyhow, this is your proposed text with a couple of edits by me;

Legal TroublesIssues (Probably not the best title)(so, how about this?)

One day after the release of the Barry Minkow report, shares of the company's stock declined by $8.92, or 15%.. Accusations leveled against Usana by Barry Minkow and the FDI, were listed as contributory factors in the decline of the stock price and have subsequently led to several lawsuits being filledfiled against the vitamin distributorcompany.

On April 4, 2007 Guerin Senter and two other USANA shareholders filed a class-action lawsuit against USANA Health Sciences, Myron W. Wentz, David A. Wentz and Gilbert A. Fuller. The suit alleges that USANA presented materially false and misleading statements about the company’s financial situation and business practices. Included in the allegations were that USANA’s business model was unsustainable and amounted to a pyramid scheme. The suit also cited several findings from the report released by Barry Minkow.

USANA has also been named the defendant in a proposed class-action lawsuit brought against them by some of the company’s distributors. On June 21st the Associated Press reported that the lawsuit was being filed in the state court of California, which has tough multilevel marketing laws. This lawsuit seeks to ban USANA from doing further business in the state, which is one of USANA’s largest markets. The lawsuit alleges that USANA failed to disclose “material adverse facts” to those recruited to sell the companies products. The lawsuit seeks damages for “downline” distributors who purchased products which they claim they were unable to sell due to the inflated prices. The lead plaintiff in the case, Christopher Crane, is claiming damages of $500, but additional plaintiffs will see that number rise.

Feel free to amend as required. LessHeard vanU 20:03, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

re Usana

		The Half Barnstar
		For your polite discussion with User:La grenouille. It is unimportant that you do not agree; it is very important that you are continuing the dialogue.

LessHeard vanU (talk) 17:04, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

ps. La grenouille has the other half... —Preceding unsigned comment added by LessHeard vanU (talk • contribs) 17:05, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

Just a reminder...

Hi there. In case you didn't know, when you add content to talk pages and Wikipedia pages that have open discussion, you should sign your posts by typing four tildes ( ~~~~ ) at the end of your comment. On many keyboards, the tilde is entered by holding the Shift key, and pressing the key with the tilde pictured. You may also click on the signature button located above the edit window. This will automatically insert a signature with your name and the time you posted the comment. This information is useful because other editors will be able to tell who said what, and when. Thank you!

Also, are you in any way affiliated with USANA HS, Inc.? You seem to be quite knowledgeable about the subject and offer a fairly strong, informed perspective, may I say. Qwerty (talk) 14:44, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

not at all regarding the article Usana...

... I lie! ;~)

I have made this comment on the talkpage. Since you are the editor concerned and likely have the source easily to hand I thought you may wish to adjust the article text. Cheers. LessHeard vanU (talk) 23:15, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

If it isn't clear, then it is probably best left out of the article until a third party source that says whether it is up or down (factoring in inflation or not) can be found. LessHeard vanU (talk) 13:27, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

Sorry, I seem to have got myself confused. We go with what they have published. LessHeard vanU (talk) 13:25, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

Yes... sorry! LessHeard vanU (talk) 20:41, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

This makes two halves, but not one whole - the point is that you share

		The Half Barnstar
		For your continuing interaction with a different editor in respect of Usana. LessHeard vanU (talk) 23:03, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

This time, Markburger83 gets the other half.LessHeard vanU (talk) 23:03, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

RE: USANA Edits

Hi Jean314

The references requested are at http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=95179&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1178914&highlight= and the Minkow lawsuit is at http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=95179&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1180011&highlight= —Preceding unsigned comment added by Andrewmizzi (talk • contribs) 01:43, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

Request for Input on USANA Article

Hi Jean. Sure I'll be happy to have a look later today. Best wishes...Rhode Island Red (talk) 16:34, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Absolutely nothing to do with Usana at all, not a thing, zilch, zero...

...so, I was fibbing! I have written on the article talkpage here regarding the new "Health concerns" section expressing my opinion. I should be grateful for your comments (asap since I intend to remove the content again). Thanks. LessHeard vanU (talk) 20:41, 19 November 2008 (UTC)

Only in that the comment I am making is in relation to Usana, thereby giving the lie to the header! (humour - rarely as apparent to the recipient as to the giver!) LessHeard vanU (talk) 22:21, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

Usana bias?

Followed the link from your edits to here. I've noticed you've posted a lot of content about controversy surrounding USANA. It's all perfectly appropriate to include it and all seems to be well-cited, within editorial standards and all that. I wonder though if, given your stated bias, if an effort might be made on your part to participate on other sections of content as well. I don't know much about the company, myself but if I were relying on the wikipedia article as my source of information, I would get the impression that only negative or controversial information were available about them. Of course, this is just an observation and suggestion, feel free to tell me to shove it :) Montypics (talk) 19:20, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

I didn't mean to ruffle feathers. My question was strictly procedural. By stated bias I was referring to your note on your user page regarding your personal history with the subject of the article. Nothing beyond that was intended. As for my interest in Usana; it extends as far as my recent and limited participation on this article. Montypics (talk) 16:35, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for your reply. I think everything is cool. I just wanted to be sure there wasn't a problem, editorially speaking. Montypics (talk) 21:11, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

Radio-Canada investigation

See my reply to your request on my talk page. Nikolai35 (talk) 03:12, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Hello

I saw your edit on the page for USANA and since you already have a stated bias for the company i am not sure that editing a page containing something that you have a bais for this stated topic it might be considered not fair to comment on this. Are you an associate for the company? But also I dont mean to bug you but it is a projet that I am working on for school and only need it to be that way unitl friday of next week so please just leave it till then and then do whatever you want to it. Also there seems to be a lot of negative controversy around the topic and only negative things in the article. I am misunderstood in this topic as many people take usana products and see dramatic improvements in their health. So what if they use a multilevel marketing system it was investigated and shown to be not an issue at all, so i dont see the issue with the nagative statements about the article. Usana also sponsers Olympians like Derek Para who have sent world records and won gold medals wihle using usana products. They products them selves have also been tested by the olympic commitee and determined that they are in no way a performance enhancing drug and something that has been approved for all olympans. Alos liting the products that usana makes under the products is not marketing at all if i was listing product information and links to associates and usanas pages trying to get people to buy usana product then that would be marketng but since im not doing that and only creting a list of products that USANA makes it is in no way marketing and was approved by my teacher. I applogize once again if i have cause any issues with this but from what i read in the wikipedia rules and regulations what i am doing to the page is not biased at all and is simply being imformative to those that may be intrested in looking up usana information from the wikipedia encyclopdia. Once again i hope this hasnt caused any issues i am just trying to figure it out. Thank you

19:21, 29 April 2009 (UTC) DVDrummer —Preceding unsigned comment added by DVDrummer (talk • contribs)

Hi, got your talk and sorry your really didnt clear anything up about your 'bias' you have stated on your talk page that you know people that have had bad experiences with usana and you seem to take a lot of imformation off the USANA page that has anything good to do with USANA and only leave bad stuff but thats fine your decisions are your decisions not my own. However taking off the product list is not truly necessary seeing as how USANA is a company that provides a product and that is their primary purpose. If this is your opion of having a product list then you should also go and remove the product lists from other well known and highly visited wikipedia pages such as Aston Martin and Ferrari. Also compaines that create and sell a product. Or mabye I should do it and see how the Wikipedia community responds, because im willing to bet that the 'lists' would be back the very next morning. Also im happy that you see fit to remove all the information that I uploaded the very next day I applogize if you see that all the hard work that I have done is unecessary but if you were to actually look at the sources that I have used majority of them come from government orginizations and trusted magizines. So thank you for hounding the USANA page and making that your only goal to make the company and their products look as bad as possible because you did in fact remove everything that I put up. And restore your unorganized article that has things in the backround that dont really need to be there and can be moved to a completley different part of the article as I had done. But ultimatley thank you for thinking that your right about this situation because sure you are. Every USANA associate gets screwed right and none of them help people better their lives and become healther. oh wait almost 500 million dollars dosnt seem to mean that anyone is getting helped. I personally talked to 4 doctors off the record about the ammount of nutrients that USANA vitamins have in them (because I was skeptical as well since there are a lot in there) and all of the doctors agreed that in todays current society, how food is grown and is not as healthy as it used to be (a la 1950/1960) that this ammount of nutrients are necessary to regulate what your not getting from food. they also proceded to say that more nutrients cant hurt you since your body will get rid of what you dont need but cant create what it dosnt have. Where are you getting your information? —Preceding unsigned comment added by DVDrummer (talk • contribs) 06:00, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

Cut'n'pasted over from userpage

The information that you changing about Denis Waitley in inaccurate, and I have written notarized proof. So please stop making the changes.— Preceding unsigned comment added by Andybinc (talk • contribs)

The information has been cited. I see no reason to remove it from the article since it helps to establish balance.Jean314 (talk) 15:00, 19 June 2010 (UTC)

Comments on declared bias

Jean, you asked me for more information on the "declared bias" comment here. Since the article talk section is for discussion regarding the article itself, I thought it prudent to bring this discussion to your talk page.

This has been referenced several times reading through your talk page here by other editors, and its coming from an Old revision of User:Jean314 User page in which you stated :

I've only really formally posted in the Usana article because I have repeatedly been approached by sales representatives of the company and many of them have been unaware of the more controversial issues surrounding it.

as well as a couple years later, when you revised your user page here to change the text to say:

... their method of marketing presents an opportunity for miscommunication amongst their members. I hope to use Wikipedia to correct some of these misunderstandings...

I believe this revelation of how you came to know about Usana (i.e. someone attempted to recruit you, repeatedly) is why others considered you to have a 'bias' about this particular company. This is not to say that your prior contributions were inappropriate or not valued. Personally, I appreciate your efforts in keeping the vandals off of the page, of both unsourced criticism as well as overly promotional and unsourced statements most likely by sales reps trying to make Usana look better.

When I look at what the article looked like when you first starting editing it, I would agree it was nothing more than a promotional stub. Since then, the majority of edits have been on adding sourced criticism, to the point where the pendulum has swung the other way and now the article is primarily an article about the criticism of the company and not the company itself. This was very clear when I started comparing what other direct sales company articles looked like, even ones with a history of controversy much deeper than the majority of criticism in the 2007-2008 timeframe with the Usana article.

As you know, I have been working on this article to restore due weight and balance by adding in referenced facts about the company's products and other areas I'm still exploring sources on. The amount of resistance has been a bit of a surprise, considering the content of the proposals. In each of the cases that I've gone outside to a noticeboard or 3O for an uninvolved opinion, they have backed up my proposed edits. This isn't to pat myself on the back (so much more to life than WP editing...), but it gives me some encouragement that I'm on the right track with my editing here.  Leef5  ^{TALK | CONTRIBS} 19:18, 9 June 2011 (UTC)

Efforts in Anti-Vandalism

Jean, irregardless of our discussion about the initial intent of your editing on the Usana article, I must commend you for keeping a eye on the article over the past few years ensuring vandalism of all types was removed promptly. For this, I award you the Anti-Vandalism Barnstar:

		The Anti-Vandalism Barnstar
		For your continuous efforts in keeping vandalism at bay over at the USANA Health Sciences article.  Leef5  TALK | CONTRIBS 18:49, 13 June 2011 (UTC)

Self-licensing

Hi Jean. That source you cited in the USANA article today[1] contained an interesting explanation about the licensing effect and I was so intrigued by it that it inspired me to create the new article entry for WP. Thanks for the inspiration and congrats on the barnstar. Rhode Island Red (talk) 02:20, 10 August 2012 (UTC)

ArbCom elections are now open!

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